Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wasn't merely skeptical; he appeared contemptuous of the Justice Department's argument trying to stop Arizona's cops from deporting undocumented Mexicans.
"But if, in fact, somebody who does not belong in this country is in Arizona, Arizona has no power?" asked the incredulous Scalia. "... Are you objecting to harassing the — the people who have no business being here? Surely you're not concerned about harassing them?"
God forbid.
Nor did Scalia suffer cara de culo alone.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts concluded an observation by noting, "It seems to me that the federal government just doesn't want to know who's here illegally or not."
With these comments the U.S. Supreme Court signaled that its expected ruling this month will, in significant part, validate Arizona's Senate Bill 1070.
If that happens, being brown will permit cops across America to ask: Which brown are you?
A journalist I work with, Monica Alonzo, grew up on the hardscrabble west side of Phoenix with brown skin.
Although she's an American, something as simple as stopping to fill her gas tank could prompt a cruel refrain: "Go back to Mexico."
She remembers the white school board members who voted themselves out of paying taxes to support the mostly Latino school in the town of El Mirage. Her cousin was routinely pulled over if he ventured into a neighboring white community.
But these are memories, not complaints. This treatment did not stop Monica Alonzo. She made herself into an award-winning investigative reporter.
Today, she buys gas where she chooses.
She put the petty meanness behind her and made something of herself.
But SB 1070 changed everything.
In Arizona, brown people, citizen and immigrant, now must prove their papers are in order. We sic badges and dogs on people of color. Sheriff Joe Arpaio's men wear ski masks and arm themselves with automatic weapons to stop Mexicans with cracked windshields. Families are separated, with parents deported and children left to fend for themselves. Those who remain are terrorized.
After one Arpaio sweep through the town of Guadalupe, children were too frightened to attend their Catholic confirmation lest relatives be arrested.
Like the pre–Civil War era of free and slave states, America is about to divide along color lines.
Six states already have a version of Arizona's bill and are awaiting the ruling for implementation. In all, 16 states filed amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court to support SB 1070.
Where once we depended upon the federal government to protect minorities from firehoses and segregated schoolhouses named after Booker T. Washington or George Washington Carver, this month the Supreme Court is poised to tell us how far local cops can go to detain brown people.
As if the federal government hadn't gone far enough.
In fact, President Obama has deported 1.5 million Latinos, more than any president. Such a massive displacement of humanity does not come without brutality.
In the first six months of 2011, 46,000 mothers and fathers were shipped back to Mexico and left their children in America. And more than 20,000 other parents were ordered out of the country but have yet to depart. Roughly 22 percent of all deportees were forced to abandon children — children who are American citizens.
What SB 1070 does is criminalize the undocumented. The law forces all police officers to ascertain a person's immigration status whenever a cop interacts with a brown person. Lights on a license plate too dim? A call about domestic violence? If an officer harbors any suspicion, he must ask for proof of citizenship. And if a cop doesn't do that, any citizen can sue the cop for not taking deportation seriously. To protect against lawsuits, the cautious cop must question all Latinos.
The stated purpose of SB 1070 is "attrition through enforcement," a chillingly efficient phrase.
How does the cop on the beat tell a Mexican from a Mexican-American?
And so, the 74 percent of all Latinos in America who are, in reality, U.S. citizens must be harassed about their origins. Unlike everyone else, they must carry papers.
Why?
Obama sells the roundup of brown people through a program called Secure Communities. The alternative is clear enough.
Have we forgotten that the Irish, Italians, Jews and Cubans generated almost as many mug shots as American dreams?
Polls show that SB 1070 and similar laws in other states are supported by voters at rates between 60 percent and 70 percent nationally.
In states that have passed laws allowing local law enforcement to hunt the undocumented, the financial impact has been devastating.
Last August, Monica Alonzo examined labor shortages in the farm economy, where an estimated 80 percent of the workforce is undocumented.
She learned that efforts to recruit Americans to pick crops have failed abysmally.
In the late 1990s, Alonzo reported, "California launched a 'welfare to farmwork' program in the Central Valley at a time when regional unemployment was as high as 20 percent. ... A massive campaign addressed training, transportation and other obstacles to getting workers in the fields. Though there were more than 100,000 potential workers, only three jobs were filled."
Things weren't any easier in Washington state. There, "a labor shortage for the 2006 cherry harvest prompted an advertising blitz to recruit about 1,700 needed workers, particularly for the much larger apple harvest that was just around the corner. Only 40 people took jobs."
I first want to commend Mr. Lacey on an article that takes bravery to write. From what I have read from the comments below you are proved right Mr. Lacey The anti latino sentiment has gone too far. It's scary to read comments from people calling immigrants "turds" ( one because I fear that a junior high student is writing it and that's why they couldn't come up with a better insult) Thank you Mr. Lacey from a legal Mexican American.
That the stupiest article I have ever read! Those illegal turds don't belong here and they are breaking/disrespecting the law.
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I came to this country legally in 1953,and you can word it any way you want but if some one enters this country illegal he has broken our laws and is classified as a criminal.As for picking on the brown Latinos as you say,what do you expect when 90% of the illegals are Latinos,if our southern neighbor was Africa chances are 90% of the illegals would be Black. I don't care if their is 100 or 11 million if their here Illegally throw them out
i agree with everything Forums4Justice said. i am fith generation hispanic and i don't have a problem with the police stopping me and checking my id what is the big deal, and i am so tired of them always saying they are going to pick on only the mexicans well in california we have illegal mexican, asians and middle easterns living here. if they are here illegally they ALL have to go/ i pray the supreme court uphold Arizona immigration laws
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"... commenters here only confirm their own gutless hatred and the bigoted motivation behind these 'laws.'" TRANSLATION: I don't like it that lots of people want immigration and employment regulations enforced.
We, the people, do not care what race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, or color, someone is, if they are here illegally, they have absolutely no right to be in our United States, let alone working, in our United States. We, the people, don't care about political parties, or their platforms, We, the people want our existing federal laws, against illegal immigration, enforced. We, the people, by a very large majority, want ALL illegal immigrants, out of our United States.
Mr. Lacey has played very loose with the facts in an effort to spin an argument, against enforcement of current immigration laws, that most American voters simply won't buy. The most glaring of his substantive misrepresentations are 1) "Roughly 22 percent of all deportees were forced to abandon children - children who are American citizens," and 2) "What SB 1070 does is criminalize the undocumented." Both these assertions are patently false. Every illegal alien deportee is free to take his children back to his country of origin. Any illegal aliens who would be prevented from doing so by their home countries would be granted residency rights on humanitarian/undue hardship grounds. Further, enacted portions of SB 1070 do not create new categories of criminal conduct for the undocumented. Breaking and entering into the U.S., using stolen Social Security numbers and forged documents, engaging in tax fraud and driving without a license were all illegal activities before Arizona ever took steps to crack down on people who have no business being here.
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