Ubaldo Jimenez Detained in AZ As Illegal

The Maricopa County Sheriff was asked a few months ago, and his answer was "if they don't look like they're from here."

 

I never said you had to have it on you at all times, just that you should have one and/or be able to show one when asked.

If a cop stops you when you're biking to the grocery store up the street and you don't have your ID, that's fine. You just have to prove you have one at some other point. (The same way you'd have to do it if you got pulled over without a license on you).

And let's be honest, most people don't have a problem with illegal immigrants until they're doing something that infringes on their life.

I've got no problem with keeping every hard-working, no trouble-making illegal in this country but we have laws in place that say either 1.) become a citizen through the official process or 2.) get out.

If we could figure out how to clean up the citizenship process to make it easier for people to get on the path to being legal, this likely wouldn't be a problem. But, as it is, people have no motivation to go through the process now because there's no consequence to ignoring it.

 

I'd be interested to hear the opinion on amnesty for illegals from folks who have followed proper channels to citizenship. It's an incredibly difficult and long-term process.

If I went thru that and watched a bunch of folks who essentially broke into the country and didn't pay taxes for years while living off the government dole get moved to the front of the line I probably wouldn't be real happy about it.

 

I don't think anyone should be stopped because someone thinks they could be here illegally. But if they get stopped for some other reason, even if it's a DUI check or speeding and they can't produce ID, then they're fair game.

Count me among those who never goes anywhere without ID.

 

MWM is the new slang for reason stopped by the police in AZ.

 

I have a relative who is married to someone who came over legally from Poland in the 1980s. He had to wait in Austria for a year before being allowed to come to the United States.

He's as for immigration reform as a person can be.

 

One thing: the "don't pay taxes" line gets repeated over and over, and it's largely not true.

 

Really? I'd like you to provide some proof that the people who are in this country illegally pay taxes.

As a native Californian, so many people hire illegals for the sole reason that they can do it off the books and not pay taxes whether it's as cleaning person, a gardner, migrant workers etc...

 

But that was the law before the Arizona law and it's the law now and the Arizona law changes nothing where that's concerned. I don't want to know why you think that booting illegals is good policy in general when they get caught incidental to another offense. I want to know why you continue to beat the drum for THIS particular law.

 

Congressional Budget office says 50% - 75% pay taxes. IRS says it gets returns from about 6 million illegal immigrants, which would be more than half, by most estimates.

And in general, they don't earn enough to pay much in income tax anyway, but will pay a high percentage of their income in sales tax, gas tax, etc.

I'm also a native California. I now live in Arizona. I'll believe the IRS on this one.

 

Because I know how much these states are impacted by illegal aliens and I know the federal government will NEVER do anything about it.

The Arizona law is far from perfect. Do I understand why they passed it? Hell yes. Do I understand why the residents are so overwhelmingly for it? Yes.

I also think they should be given a chance to see how it works before they are shredded for all of the things that people claim the police are going to do.

 

The state can't do anything about it under this law, either. That's the point. You want to see "how it's going to work." But it can't work. No one can even offer up a hypothetical in which this law helps the state catch illegals.

It seems like you just like it symbolically.