Word: bill
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This past Saturday, Congress’s best chance to enact considerable climate legislation anytime soon received a devastating blow. Citing his concern over Democrats’ focus on immigration reform, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham withdrew his support for a climate-change bill that was supposed to be announced on Monday. Although it is certainly Sen. Graham’s right to be upset over the Democrats' decision to also begin discussions on a new immigration bill, choosing to pull support, especially when the bill was so close to being formally introduced and stood a good chance of passing...
Last Friday, Arizona’s Republican governor Jan K. Brewer signed into law the nation’s strictest bill on illegal immigration to date in spite of concern expressed by President Obama. Under the legislation, police may now detain individuals whom they reasonably suspect entered the United States illegally and authorities can charge immigrants with state crimes if they fail to carry proper immigration papers at any given time. In addition, it even grants citizens the right to sue their cities should they feel that the law is not being enforced strongly enough. While we understand that Arizona...
...inconvenience—one that seems designed as a trap that will simply make it easier to arrest a greater number of immigrants. After all, is it really reasonable to expect an entire immigrant population to carry around a host of bureaucratic documents during every daily activity? Also, the bill does not provide nearly enough protection of the right to privacy, which, while not explicitly included in the Constitution, has nevertheless been upheld by the Supreme Court. Finally, allowing citizens to sue their cities for being too lax on enforcement will accomplish little, and places an enormous amount of pressure...
...subject of such discrimination, there is no telling just what sort of effect this bill will have on Arizona’s Latino communities, as police are now likely to stop people simply for looking Hispanic. Will Latinos still feel comfortable speaking Spanish, even in the sanctuary of residential areas? Will they still be able to celebrate their cultural heritage in a society that is meant to be pluralistic...
...passage of this bill does not appear to offer any economic gain. Since police officers will need training—and some citizens may, in fact, sue their cities—the new legislation will inspire high costs without the prospect of fiscal benefits in return...