Driving while Brown 0

Ken Cuccinelli looks west for inspiration.

During a news conference Monday, Cuccinelli said it’s his opinion that Virginia police officers can ask about immigration status as part of criminal investigations “so long as they don’t extend the duration of the stop by any significant degree.”

But he advised authorities against addressing civil violations of federal immigration laws.

(snip)

Under current state law, authorities are required to check the immigration status of individuals who are taken into custody. Legal interpretations by attorneys general may carry some weight with courts but aren’t considered binding.

This would seem to extend that to anyone who is questioned, including witnesses, victims, and by-standers who turn out not to have witnessed anything. The story goes on to quote spokespersons from various police departments that indicate that the police departments are approaching this very cautiously.

This is witch hunt territory. The opinion was in response to a question from a state legislator known for right-wing grandstanding.

Listen to the rhetoric of the anti-illegal immigration bunch. It is the same as the rhetoric of the pro-segregation forces of the Jim Crow south (and of today–they are still with us, they are just quieter about it)–only the target has changed.

Immigrants, legal or otherwise, are not the root of the problem; they are the tree growing from the root. The United States’s immigration laws form the root, an impenetrable mess designed to exclude immigrants from the nation which likes to style itself as a “nation of immigrants.”

Read up on the legal history in Kevin R. Johnson’s article from the Indiana Law Review.

It is almost impossible for someone to immigrate legally unless he or she is rich, has a Ph. D., is a media star, or some combination thereof.

And Republicans forestall any attempt at reform.