Today the Atlanta Journal broke the story that Former Governor Roy Barnes gave the strongest endorsement to an Arizona-style immigration law here in Georgia. The comments were made during the taping of the Democratic debate for the governor's race which will air on Saturday morning at 10 a.m.:
Now, I have endorsed Mr. Barnes in his run for governor so I decided to make a whole post out of this. I understand the potential backlash facing the former governor from members of his own party, but if you'll notice, everyone at the debate (at least the major players) seemed to hedge their statements a bit; with most saying they would want to see the outcome of the federal lawsuit, they would want to make sure that there would be no profiling, or would like to see how it works in Arizona, etc. I think Roy was very careful in his remarks, at least as they've been reported and I'm going out on a limb to say that I'm with him on this position.
They way Mr. Barnes framed the "legislation" that is purely hypothetical in this state, was to say that he backed the use of state officers to enforce federal law. And he has a point; that is done routinely in many facets of law enforcement. He also emphasized that a great amount of training would need to be undertaken to ensure that racial profiling did not become a large problem, and he's correct in saying that that goal can be accomplished. He also said that he doesn't believe in making being in this country illegally a state crime, because the monetary burden would then fall on the states, and once again, he's nailed it. My only personal problem with an Arizona-style illegal immigration law is the burden that it could potentially put on the law enforcement officers themselves. I don't think that in the middle of an arrest or confrontation a law enforcement officer should have to worried about dotting his i's and crossing his t's by checking the immigration status of an offender. The burden that officers (and their families) carry is already too large for their pay grades. What I am okay with is a system like E-verify, which is specific to employers. If taken into custody and found to be in the country illegally, the offender would be in the process of violating federal law, so I say use a system like that to then turn them over to the federal government. Being here illegally IS a crime, just as much as violating any other law is. There should not be special treatment. If found to be in violation of immigration law, then offenders should be reprimanded in whatever way the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT deems best, whether it's a path to citizenship, a worker's visa, deportation for serious crimes, or some other option. I do not have a problem with any state like Georgia having a law allowing officers to (at some point in time during an arrest, booking, etc.) view the immigration status of any offender and then subsequently turning that offender over to the correct authorities. And that is what I believe Mr. Barnes is talking about.
What I do not want to happen is for officers of the law to go around flippantly checking the immigration status of anyone that they view as a potential illegal immigrant. That is profiling, and that is disgraceful. I also don't want the federal government to completely relinquish all responsibility. What I do believe is that states should have the right to enforce, or at the very least the right to help the federal government enforce, immigration laws. At the heart of the issue, immigration is a federal problem. But it's not very often that every day petty offenders are stopped by U.S. Marshals; and if the the Georgia State Patrol can assist in that fight, without violating discrimination policies and without having the federal government default on their co-requisite duties, then I say more power to them. What Roy Barnes DID NOT do is endorse Arizona's specific law, and if he were to do that, then I would NOT be beside him on that issue; he provided all the right caveats to address the faults of Arizona's law. What he DID do is demonstrate an intention to effectively address a real problem. And I commend his willingness to do so.
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