These are good adjustments as its sponsor Sen. Russell Pearce notes,”just to take away the silly arguments and the games, the dishonesty that’s been played.” Good for them. I’ve noted since this passed, everyone should welcome court challenges, which it will survive, and therefore strengthen the bill itself as a template for other states. The willingness of Arizona lawmakers to make adjustments also signals they’re ready to stand by this important legislation and make it work.

Arizona lawmakers OK several changes to immigration law

Arizona lawmakers have approved several changes to the recently passed sweeping law targeting illegal immigration.

If Gov. Jan Brewer supports the changes, they will go into effect at the same time as the new law, 90 days from now.

The current law requires local and state law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally, and makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally.

One change to the bill strengthens restrictions against using race or ethnicity as the basis for questioning and inserts those same restrictions in other parts of the law.

Changes to the bill language will actually remove the word “solely” from the sentence, “The attorney general or county attorney shall not investigate complaints that are based solely on race, color or national origin.”

Another change replaces the phrase “lawful contact” with “lawful stop, detention or arrest” to apparently clarify that officers don’t need to question a victim or witness about their legal status.

A third change specifies that police contact over violations for local civil ordinances can trigger questioning on immigration status.

UPDATE: One of the authors of Arizona’s SB 1070 has written an op-ed piece rebutting each of the criticisms of the bill. Please do read it for more ammunition in answering whatever mindless, hysterical liberals you encounter.

Kobach: Why Arizona Drew a Line

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11 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. Maynard says:

    I think the argument against the Arizona law is it’s somehow illegal to make illegals illegal. Or it’s against the law to make a law enforcing the law. Or something like that. Anyway, whatever’s wrong with Arizona’s law must be pretty serious, because California lawmakers have pledged economic reprisals. They’ve even threatened to stop passing all those regulations and tax hikes that have sent Californians and California businesses fleeing to Arizona by the thousands.

  2. mrcannon says:

    What makes me the most livid is how Arizona has been treated by fellow Americans, even though I am certain that The Grand Canyon State will have the last laugh when all is said and done. Obama and many of his zombies don’t even live there and yet they actually believe that they should have a say in how a sovereign state governs itself. George W. Bush probably doesn’t support the legislation, but if he had been president I think it’s highly unlikely he would have gone on the offensive the way Urkel has. In his own radicalized mind, Barack Obama apparently requires that he be consulted first, and since he wasn’t, he’s gone completely Alinsky-esque: target, isolate, demonize, and destroy a state in a union he’s supposed to be presiding over. In addition, since the so-called news media’s propaganda on this is so relentless, I refuse to watch it, not ever, not even for a few minutes. This witchhunt against Arizona is about all I can stand from this regime, and there’s no doubt in my mind that Texas is next on the Messiah’s sierra list.

  3. thierry says:

    these oh so enlightened liberals have no idea about the immigration and worker policies of other nations – nations they admire and think are left wing utopias like denmark. to get citizenship you HAVE to learn danish because – gasp!-it’s the language of the danish people. what a racist outrage! some of the muslim men didn’t want their she- slaves aka wives in the coed danish classes and the government said- “then take a hike”. but this was in the 90s when europe was making no bones about not submitting to sharia law. who knows now….

    and they have no idea about the legal immigration policies of some european nations that are destroying countries. the socialist paradise of sweden is erupting into unprecedented violence from their muslim immigrants including riots, violence against jews( with the gross participation of leftist native swedish ghouls )and a sickening upswing in vicious rapes of non- muslim girls and women by muslim men. do they dare ask the rapists for their papers or would that be islamophobia? the tolerance for outrageous criminal behaviors from ‘god and allah’s undocumented children’ by liberals seems to prove the premise that they are out to destroy their own countries by bringing in and encouraging the enemy.

    a friend of mine who was born in switzerland of 2 english parents used to go to these excruciating citizenship tests every year as an adult- and was repeatedly denied. being born in switzerland then didn’t instantly make you a citizen. they ended up legally immigrating to america because it was easier than getting papers to work in the country they were born in.

    and they definitely have no idea about the work/sex slaves from places like india that the saudis abuse with nary an international peep about real human rights violations- real slaves, real kidnappings, real, sometimes, murder. saudis in america have been found to be dragging in sex slaves to work as ‘ maids’ because that sort of thing is a ok for them at home to do to ‘immigrants.’ but asking for ID is a civil rights violation? try having your’ civil rights’ if you go to work legally in saudi arabia even if you’re a professional, lily white and male… where they can have you executed for any old charge they feel like drumming up.

  4. Mrs. Malcontent says:

    When I listen to the customary wailing and nashing of teeth by the left, I find myself asking why do we even have laws in the first place when they will be reviled and disregarded. Am I missing something?

  5. Chris says:

    Arizona has few restrictions on car window tinting. Tint your windows if you really think that police are going to “racially profile” you. No whiny victim-minded BS.

    • thierry says:

      for decades african americans living in a mattapan knew they’d likely be stopped on a particular route , a popular short cut going through an upper middle class largely white town, just for being black. it was called DWB- driving while black. it was a well known fact of life- it wasn’t projection or liberal hysteria. there were no boycotts of this town for their law enforcement’s clearly biased profiling- stopping black american citizens on their way home from work for no violation other than excessive skin tint. no liberal celebrities were out screaming for an end to racism and the civil rights violations of legal and law abiding citizens. for decades.

      so people got wise and resourceful- they got the heavy tint on the car windows. so then the powers that be enacted laws against excessive tinted glass which gave them outright a real legal reason to stop someone. still no boycotts, no law suits.

  6. […] Next, why is a latino woman schooling her city council on Arizona’s illegal immigrant law? Go here for the video and commentary. More from Tammy Bruce an the issue here. […]

  7. morecowbell says:

    I am pro-profiling, racial or otherwise. If a cop thinks something is up, for whatever reason, there probably is. I am paying him (not enough BTW) to check it out and be professional about it. I want him (or her.. sorry ladies) to have all the powers and tools necessary to keep himself and us safe. I want the Law Enforcement professionals out there to know that there are folks out here, like me, who have your back because you have always had ours.

    • sandyl says:

      Amen! This is the same stupid argument as gun control. It is the person who abuses the process or tool that is the problem, not the tool itself. But liberals believe all gun owners are criminals, and all cops are inherently racist.

  8. Laura says:

    As an Arizona resident I find this whining about racial profiling to be completely asinine, as a blue-eyed blonde entering Mexico illegally think I might somehow be racially profiled? I would be instantly put in jail. These protesters are ‘feeling’ and not thinking! This is about being here illegally not about what race you are. 80% of illegal aliens are Mexican, it is the law of averages not race, illegal is a crime not a race for crying out loud! I think since San Francisco is boycotting us fine, feel free, we will be more than happy to send all of the illegal aliens that are over here and they can then deal with the problem, curious to see how the typical pansy liberal male will deal with the mexican gangs, I am sure the mexican gangs would find them quite the prize as bending over seems to be the national past time for the majority of ‘men’ in San Francisco, yes please take the illegals from Arizona, we will be happy to send them over as I am quite sure San Francisco would welcome them. Racism/civil rights is being used as a stupid excuse to make a claim to literally have Mexico take over a part of the United States; A foreign country is telling Arizona how to run their state, is it just me or does that sound like an attempt of foreign occupation. Since when does another country dictate entry into our country, all other countries have borders, but we don’t, and when we attempt to close the border we are persecuted for being racist? That is moronic. This Narcissist-man-child-in-chief simply is using the Hispanic population as pawns, that is dispiteous!

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