Sarah Palin will be in Phoenix Saturday at the Marriott Desert Ridge, joining her fellow Republican, Governor Jan Brewer in an event billed at launching a "national effort and Web site to educate America on border security and encourage support for Arizona."
In other words, Brewer's hoping Caribou Barbie can do for her what she did for John McCain's presidential bid in 2008. (Ahem.)
See, Brewer's desperate to convince the world that they've got SB 1070, the new "papers please" legislation she signed into law, all wrong. Yesterday, Brewer announced a tourism task force to stem the hemorrhaging from that still-bleeding corpse known as Arizona's reputation.
So Brewer's going to spend $250K trying to convince people that the police state law she signed doesn't really do anything.
"The bottom line is there are a lot of mistruths about the bill," she told the AP. "You're not going to walk down the street and get questioned unless you've committed a crime."
This is 100 percent hogwash, with all apologies to the hogs. See, the law requires police to check immigration status during any "lawful stop, detention or arrest" where cops have "reasonable suspicion" to believe you're in the country illegally.
You need not have committed a crime, despite the governor's claims.
Moreover, the law empowers officers to look into immigration status "in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town or this state."
So anything from barking dogs to graffiti nearby could give a cop the excuse to stop you and ask you about your immigration status. And since the vast majority of those in Arizona illegally are from Mexico or Central America, it is reasonable to conclude that Hispanics will be targeted under the law, which goes into effect by the end of July.
Indeed, under SB 1070, you are presumed to be an illegal alien unless you have one of various forms of ID on you.
So if you're brown in this state, you're guilty until proven innocent. Maybe Brewer's right. That's may be great for tourism, if you happen to be a white racist...
