“I think the Obama administration has made a strategic blunder.” By filing suit against Arizona’s law, the administration “is just trying to intimidate Arizona.”
“Intimidate”? Now that’s a curious choice of words.
If you want to see examples of intimidation, check out the Web site for Virginia Rules of Law campaign, which Stewart launched in June. On it, a smiling Stewart (family photo on right rail) brags that thanks to his law, “illegal aliens fled the county, and the violent crime rate has plummeted.” (The former may be true, but the latter is seriously in doubt as statistics have shown little connection between the law and violent crime.
Granted, as a state bordering Mexico, Arizona has a lot more immigrant traffic than does Prince WIlliam. The Copper State, which didn’t join the union until 1912, has for centuries been a spillover region linking Latin America, Native America and European America. It really didn’t become Anglo-ized until white retirees started showing up in the 1960s, and only after that did immigration suddenly become a big problem.
As a rather sleepy and affluent suburb, Prince William has not been awash with immigrants in the same way. It is not the hotbed of serious crime that one sees in the District or in Virginia metropolitan areas such as Richmond or Portsmouth. The vast majority of immigrants, documented or otherwise, seem to be hard-working, law-abiding Latinos filling low-end jobs that whites don’t want.
As obnoxious as Stewart’s views are, he still has support in Virginia. Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli filed papers in Arizona supporting that state’s law.
It amazes that Stewart keeps coming up with such xenophobia when Virginia and the U.S. are more closely tied to the global economy than ever before. As a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, he ought to know this.
Not only are his proposals hateful, some are just plain stupid. Take the fee on wire transactions overseas. Let’s see how this might affect my family personally. My wife was born in Russia and has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1993. She has since earned a B.S. and an M.A. degree in this country and has been teaching in school and paying taxes since 2000. I can vouch for this. I stood next to her when she was naturalized (and we had a hell of a party afterwards) and I know she pays taxes because I have filed them.
Her nephew still lives in Russia and is a middle schooler who is nuts about ice hockey. He needs equipment and money for training camp. Sometimes she sends it via wire transfer. So now we are going to have to pay some ridiculous extra fee designed to punish Virginians who happen to have been born in a different country. How American.
How Stewart’s wicked brew of discriminatory laws plays out in autumn congressional elections and the ones for Virginia General Assembly in 2011 depend on how higher courts handle Judge Bolton’s decision. It could very well be that the courts will strike down all of the Arizona law, not just parts of it. If so, Prince William’s immigration law would be in jeopardy. Efforts to pass one in Virginia will be moot. And Stewart will look like a fool.
Peter Galuszka
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