NYT OpEd: Let Arizona’s (SB 1070) Law Stand (at the Supreme Court)

[pampango]

Arizona is one of several states, including Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Indiana (all run by republicans), that, frustrated by Congress’s idling on immigration reform, have challenged federal authority by taking it upon themselves to devise draconian policies for undocumented immigrants. Alabama’s law even requires schools to collect immigration-status data on their students. ("Frustrated" republican state politicians are motivated by a partisan desire to block any national immigration reform so that they can be "frustrated" that the federal government doesn't do anything.)

Such laws are misguided at best, mean-spirited and racially tainted at worst. The conventional wisdom among immigration advocates is that immigrant interests will be best served if the Supreme Court makes an example of Arizona’s law by striking it down. (That's certainly what I would like to see happen, though I know that this SC is unlikely to do that.)

But in the long run, immigrant interests will be better helped if the Supreme Court upholds S.B. 1070. Laws like Arizona’s are such bad policy that, left to their own devices, they will die a natural death — and their supporters will suffer the political consequences. (An interesting thought. Alabama republicans are already trying to "amend" the law they passed last year.

Even without such blunders, international human rights advocates, union organizers and shareholder activists are putting these laws on the corporate social-responsibility agenda. Earlier this month, opponents of Alabama’s law traveled to Berlin to press the issue at Daimler’s annual meeting. This is the kind of hassle that corporations hate. Why deal with Alabama or Arizona when you can build in North Carolina or Florida, states that have refrained from pursuing extreme anti-immigrant measures?

We should hold our noses and hope the Supreme Court lets S.B. 1070 stand, so we can watch it wither away on its own.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/opinion/let-the-arizona-law-stand-then-wither.html?_r=1

Italicized additions to the NYT article are mine.

[lamp_shade]

1. Boy does this make sense. K&R

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Putting aside the premise of these laws will inevitably wither on the vine,

what if the same expectation were applied to Jim Crow laws in the South? That the South would create a stagnant economy through its racist laws and customs that the legislatures would be inspired to change their laws. I beg to differ. The inherent discrimination was the primary motivation and the back in the day, there were enough racists writing the laws and citizens willing to live with those laws to allow them to live with less wealth. That's right: they'd rather be poor(er) than live with civil rights.

What if states like Alabama and Arizona would rather discriminate against illegal workers than make a program to integrate them into citizens? Where's the motivation in these new laws to achieve that goal? That's right, there isn't any because immigration and naturalization are NOT the goals. Self-deportation is the goal. Go back to where you came from. Do you think for a moment that blocks of millions of illegal immigrants will be granted the right to vote, that is, the right to vote in democrats? Don't waste your time thinking.

The Supreme Court has protect civil rights of both citizens and immigrants. If it rules to sustain these states' laws, there will be effectively a two-tiered system for rights. Do you want to live with that?

[pampango]

3. You make a good point. Republican politicians don't mind their states "withering on the vine" as

long as they retain power. They have shown a great tolerance for backwardness and stagnant economies in order to keep society the way "it is supposed to be".

It is the people who live in the states who would suffer from the "withering".

I suppose that the author's view of a SC ruling upholding SB 1070 is a an example of trying to make lemonade from lemons. I hope the SC does rule against 1070, but am not optimistic that will happen. I was looking for a silver lining to an otherwise very dark cloud.