Sometimes when you lose, you actually win

Can’t flippin’ STAND Rosie Perez, but that was one of the great lines from White Men Can’t Jump.  (I’m still baffled by that “can’t hear Jimmy” stuff, but that’s a different discussion for another day.)

The Supreme Court has spoken about Arizona’s controversial law regarding illegal aliens, and they said…

No, no, no, and YES.

The portions of the law making it a state crime to be in the country illegally and requiring the arrest of those suspected of being illegal aliens, failing to carry with you proof that you ARE here legally, and illegally seeking employment, were struck down.  At first I was all bummed out, and then I slogged through the reading of the decision, and suddenly, it made sense.  Arizona doesn’t need to codify those things in state law, because federal law already exists spelling out those issues.

Fine.  I can live with that.  Can we repeal all the other state laws that say the same thing as federal law?  That would be seriously awesome, because it would free up local resources to deal with local issues.  I care way less about the dude twisting up a fatty than I do about the illegal alien who rammed a pedestrian with his car so forcefully that one of the deceased victim’s legs ended up on the roof of a two-story building.  (Yes, that happened here.  And you wonder why Arizonans are so frustrated.  We have plenty of home-grown criminals, thank you very much.  We don’t need to import any.)

To digress for a moment, when I am a visitor in someone else’s country, I always always ALWAYS attempt to be a good guest.  I carry my passport, and my visa if applicable, with me at all times.  If I’m going to be renting a vehicle, I call my insurance company and purchase a rider that covers any mishaps that may occur in the course of my adventures.  (Those roundabouts in the UK go the wrong way!!!  Don’t ask.  Long story.)  I have often wondered why guests in my country feel no such obligation to not be buttheads.  Federal law says you should be carrying your green card or visa or properly stamped passport if you are lawfully present here.  Nobody enforces that law, apparently, yet it’s really not too much to ask.

On to the portion of the law that was upheld:  If you are stopped or detained by the police, they are required to make a “reasonable effort” to verify your legal status.  Good.  That’s all this law was ever about anyway.  Arizona wanted to identify illegal aliens and make the ICE Man aware of them.  The rest of it is on them.  Is it a perfect outcome?  No, but it could be worse.  The Supremes could have ruled that we cannot do ANYTHING about the illegal alien mess.

The apologists have sworn that it’s not over until the fat illegal alien sings.  They will keep filing lawsuits and asking for injunctions.

You know what?  I just don’t give a husky rat’s ass.  When the bill was first signed into law, a couple hundred thousand illegal aliens left Arizona.  This decision will send another ginormous gaggle of them packing.  I don’t care if they leave for a more illegal alien friendly state, or return to their country of origin, as long as they go away.  That goes for all illegal aliens.  Fix your status or be gone.  (Before anyone tosses out the “racism” card, let me explicitly say that I do not contradistinguish between illegal aliens from various countries.  I even dropped a dime on an illegal alien from Iceland.  He was so white he practically glowed in the dark.  No brown-skin bigotry here.)

One way or another, we will reduce the number of illegal aliens in Arizona.

That leads me to a question.  The big deal here was, as the Supreme Court emphatically pointed out this morning, CONGRESS makes the rules about immigration.  Not individual states, not the executive branch, but CONGRESS.  Click your heels together, and say it three times.  Congress.  Congress.  Congress.  If Congress has not authorized work visas for the illegal aliens that Obama singled out last week as being eligible based on criteria he pulled out of his rectum, then how can those visas be granted?  Is he asking federal employees to violate federal law?

Oh, Barry, don’t you just hate it when that “federal law” sword cuts in two directions?  You can give them a deferment from deportation, just like you did for Auntie Zoolander and Uncle Alkie, but you can’t give them permission to work.  Only CONGRESS can do that.  Sucks to be you with your empty promises and hollow executive orders.

We have Obama claiming victory, and Jan Brewer claiming victory.  They are both correct.  Obama has scored a decisive goal with the illegal aliens.  They can’t vote, or at least, they aren’t supposed to.  Governor Brewer has a new tool in her toolbox to combat the illegal alien issue.  She’s been proactive in training law enforcement to apply the law without racial profiling or any of the other legal bogeymen.  She has also galvanized the voters who see just how out of control the situation is and desperately want something done about it.

I’m giving the point to Jan Brewer and all of Arizona on this one.