By Felicia Persaud
On the last day of January, a Republican U.S. lawmaker in Congress introduced a bill that can only be regarded as dumb.
U.S. Representative Diane Black, (R-TN), used January 31st to introduce H.R. 3842. The bill, that comes on the heels of a report that Alabama’s controversial immigration law is costing the state’s economy up to a whopping $10.8 billion annually, calls for the Department of Justice and the Obama Administration to be prohibited from pursuing lawsuits against states like Alabama, Arizona, South Carolina and Alabama because of their controversial new immigration laws.
Black, a mulch-millionaire lawmaker, without paying any attention to the constitution or federal rules on the books, insists that, “Congress must support every state’s right to enforce the law and protect their own citizens without fear of retribution from the federal government.”
Really? Then Madame Black, why do we need you in Washington? States should simply all become mini countries then within the United States and govern themselves, following your logic.
The bill is completely stupid and a waste of time and smacks completely of just what it accuses the Obama administration of – being politically motivated.
Except Black is wrong as the Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department are simply upholding the federal rules that says only the federal government has the right to enforce the immigration laws of the country. Several appellate justices have already agreed with this, citing the Fourteenth amendment of the constitution that prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness.
In, fact, the courts have ruled that, while they are within the borders of the United States, undocumented immigrants are granted the same fundamental, undeniable constitutional rights granted to all Americans.
What these states are doing are undoubtedly violations of the laws and the constitutions and can lead to racial profiling of even U.S. citizen immigrants because of their accent or the color of their skin.
What Congresswoman Black and her companions in the Senate, including Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC), David Vitter (R-LA) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), should be doing, is finding a common sense way to deal with the issue of illegal immigration instead of following their usual party line and making everything a political blame game.
As Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said last week in her second d Annual Address on the State of America’s Homeland Security: “The bottom line is that our nation’s current immigration laws are sorely outdated and in need of revision.”
Enough with the excuses that the Obama administration has not worked hard to close the borders and the scapegoating of immigrants.
Deportation rates are at a record high as are deportation arrests. Not even a Republican administration has done as much to stamp down on the problem of illegal crossing and criminal deportation as this administration.
Black and cohorts need to face the reality and get to work on a solution rather than wasting time on nonsensical bills like H.R. 3842.
The writer is founder of NewsAmericasNow, CaribPR Wire and Hard Beat Communications.
