Column for June 3, 2010

On my way to church services last weekend, I had to stop for the friendly neighborhood police officers that were running a license checkpoint here in the booming Metropolis of Selma. I am fairly used this concept, since I have had to stop numerous times at impromptu checkpoints over the past few years. Each time I get out my wallet to produce my driver's license. This time, for the first time, I also had to produce my vehicle registration.

I actually have no problem with this concept, which may surprise some people. As long as such checks are done with consistency of fairness to all vehicle operators, I believe that it is a matter of public safety to ensure that people are sober, are indeed licensed drivers, and belong on the roads. It is a legal and reasonable use of governmental and law enforcement resources.

Since I as a driver have to produce proof that I am licensed to operate the motor vehicle I operate, I am astounded at the resistance to the Arizona law against illegal immigration. Their recent law allows for local law enforcement to ascertain the legal statuses of people that they suspect are in the state (actually nation) illegally. This is pursuant only to an already legal contact with law enforcement agents. This means that a police officer can not stop someone on the street or a driver on the highway whom they suspect is here illegally unless they have either committed another infraction of the law.

Liberals who have ignorantly decried this law as a violation of civil liberties have either not read the law or they are purposely being deceptive. President Barack Obama lied through his teeth when he claimed that the police would ask people for their papers when they are taking their family out for ice cream. The use of the term "papers" was specifically used to conjure up images of Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union's KGB. It is nothing more than a propaganda tactic.

If I, a law abiding citizen can be legally asked for my identification and "papers" at a license checkpoint, then a criminal can certainly be asked for theirs when they are caught in criminal behavior. Controlling immigration into America is one of the basic duties of the federal government, but one that they have abrogated most heinously. States and local governments have been paying the price for the lack of action on the federal government's part, so they in turn have begun to "step up to the plate" and begun dealing with the issue in their own sovereign ways.

There are legitimate powers of government for purposes of control and there are illegitimate ones. I think about this distinction often, and at all levels of government. Whether it is the national government, the state, county, town, or even church governments, there are legitimate uses of power and there are illegitimate uses thereof. Controlling our border for the sake of national protection is definitely a legitimate use of government. Ensuring that people who broke the law while entering the country and then enforcing that first infraction while enforcing other laws is definitely a legitimate use of governmental power.

Recently, the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon had the audacity to criticize the sovereignty of Arizona and condemn their law against illegal immigration as a huge violation of human rights. He found it humiliating to be asked for proof that you belong in America. Oddly enough, he readily admits that the immigration laws in Mexico are far stricter than they are in the United States and illegal immigrants are readily deported or imprisoned. That flaming hypocrisy should be astounding to any logically thinking individual. What is even worse is the lockstep criticism by our current administration in the White House.

With all the irrational calls for boycotts against Arizona for their government's courage to stand against illegal immigration and to protect their own self interests, I am almost tempted to change my upcoming vacation plans and spend my tourist dollars in Arizona. I can only wish that legislators in North Carolina have the same fortitude to pass similar legislation in our state. Such a bill has recently been introduced into the North Carolina State Senate. I seriously doubt that either our weak governor or the state legislature would have such courage to pass it, however.