Arizona just passed a new immigration law that’s getting the attention of national policymakers.
Critics of the bill say it may be unconstitutional and that it will prompt racial profiling.
But conservative columnist George Will said on ABC’s This Week that the new law only reiterates federal crimes.
“What the Arizona law does is make a state crime out of something that already is a crime, a federal crime,” he said. “Now, the Arizona police — and I’ve spent time with the Phoenix Police Department — these are not bad people. These are professionals who are used to making the kind of difficult judgments. Suspicion of intoxicated driving, all kinds of judgments are constantly made by policemen. And I wouldn’t despair altogether their ability to do this in a professional way.”
Other proponents of the bill have made the same argument, including Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, who said that the “legislation mirrors federal laws regarding immigration enforcement.”
Byron Wolf reported: Sen. John McCain has a complicated relationship with the tough new immigration enforcement law in Arizona.
He never endorsed the bill before it passed, only calling it “good a tool” for law enforcement in the days before it was signed by the Arizona government. More recently, he suggested the law might not pass constitutional muster.
But in fiery remarks on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, McCain said justifiable anger and frustration led to the law and blamed inaction by the federal government for its passage.