Loading...
post-template-default single single-post postid-23115 single-format-standard

Proposed Florida Immigration Bill would Exempt White Immigrants

Alex Constantine - October 23, 2010

By Alex Pareene
Salon | October 20, 2010

the wonder bread - Proposed Florida Immigration Bill would Exempt White ImmigrantsFlorida State Representative William SnyderFlorida Republican state legislator William Snyder has proposed a great new immigration law for his state, modeled on that one in Arizona. But this one -- which GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott supports, of course -- has a special twist: White people are exempt!

The more articulate/acceptable-to-the-mainstream supporters of the Arizona law usually point out that the law forbids police from racial profiling. The proposed bill doesn't really bother pretending.

What few observers seem to have noticed, though, is a bizarre clause Snyder included on page 3. Even if an officer has "reasonable suspicions" over a person's immigration status, the bill says, a person will be "presumed to be legally in the United States" if he or she provides "a Canadian passport" or a passport from any "visa waiver country."

What are the visa waiver countries? Other than four Asian nations, all 32 other countries are in Western Europe, from France to Germany to Luxembourg.

Others detained by the police would need to carry papers proving that they're in the U.S. legally. Because, I guess, Canadians and Europeans are never in the U.S., on expired or no visas, working jobs illegally. It's just the Mexicans.

(One more thing that will be tough for Florida's law enforcement: Cubans that make it to the U.S. -- including those who enter from Mexico -- are allowed to be here. Just no Mexicans!)

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/?story=/politics/war_room/2010/10/20/florida_immigration_canadians

No comments yet.

  1. Besides the point.

    No person is required to provide proof of citizenship status to anyone except to Border Patrol officers or Customs Officers.

    It makes no difference what laws congress has passed about this. Legal jurisdiction over citizenship status constitutionally belongs to the Executive Branch, not the Legislative or Judicial branch of US Government. The President of the United States has constitutionally delegated authority to the Justice Department, Border Patrol and Customs agents. That’s it. No one else.

    Any ‘citizen’ who demands proof of citizenship and who detains a ‘suspect’ on being denied such proof, is commiting a felony. Any such ‘suspect’ still retains full constitutionally guaranteed civil rights, also, such a person has state-guaranteed rights, like the right to use deadly force to stop a felony in progress.

    Anglos just don’t get it. They’ve been on the wrong side of this issue from the beginning.

  2. Concerning state laws: States surrendered certain areas of legal jurisdiction when they became part of the union. Like jurisdiction over the issue of foreigners in American soil – immigrants, legal or otherwise. Only the Federal government has jurisdiction over that. Also the power to regulate the border; that belongs **only** to the Federal Government. Not to the Minutemen or to the local cops. Local cops are likewise prevented from using municipal funds or resources to process undocumented aliens. All they can do is detain them in place for some usually imagined transgression, like loitering or trespassing, while they call the Border Patrol to come and take over.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *