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Some Immigration Links

On Judge Andrew Napolitano’s FreedomWatch, the gentlemanly Jack Hunter and I debate immigration .

The never-any-nonsense Radley Balko here.

The always-excellent Shikha Dalmia here, and also here.

And finally, Pima County, Arizona, sheriff Clarence Dupnik – writing in today’s Wall Street Journal – on the threats to liberty posed by Arizona’s new immigration statute.  Here are couple of key paragraphs from Sheriff Dupnik’s essay:

The more fundamental problem with the law is its vague language. It requires law enforcement officials to demand papers from an individual when they have a “reasonable suspicion” that he is an illegal immigrant. The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal” and that “they are endowed . . . with certain inalienable rights” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Those who look “suspiciously” like illegal immigrants will find their liberty in severe jeopardy and their pursuit of happiness disrupted—even if they are citizens or have lived, worked, paid taxes, and maybe even have served in our Armed Forces for decades.

When used in a law-enforcement context, “reasonable suspicion” is always understood to be subjective, but it must be capable of being articulated. In the case of identifying illegal immigrants, the ambiguity of what this “crime” looks like risks including an individual’s appearance, which would seem to violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause. Such ambiguity is especially dangerous when prescribed to an issue as fraught with emotion as that of illegal immigration.

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