Opinion: Obama, the Tribal Law and Order Act and immigration laws
Friday, July 30, 2010
Filed Under:
Opinion
" Comes now President Obama, the Chief Executive Officer of the United States, sworn to faithfully execute the federal laws, who instructs Attorney General Holder to march into federal court to seek an injunction against this new Arizona law and to prohibit the enforcement of federal laws (bad enough by itself) and compounds this violation of his oath by restraining police officers from performing their sworn obligations. At the President's request, the federal court has carved out -- from the universe of the laws the police are sworn to uphold -- particular federal immigration laws. This is a reversal of the Civil Rights Era in which the federal government mandated that the states comply with federal law -- and sent federal marshals and troops to ensure that they did so.
The day after the judge's ruling, President Obama signed the Trial Law and Order Act. According to reports, this law "will allow selected tribal police officers to enforce federal laws on Indian lands…" I am not sufficiently versed in Indian Law to know why tribal police officers, unlike state officers, need to be specifically deputized to enforce federal law. And, perhaps a reader can inform us whether this new law defines the federal laws now enforceable by tribal police to include immigration laws. Certainly a positive answer to this question would highlight the contrast that exists now between the authorities of tribal and Arizona police. For, whatever the answer, tribal police have been granted the authority which has been denied Arizona police.
But there is more. The report states that tribal police are empowered to enforce federal laws "whether or not the offender is Indian." If there was any merit to the argument that the Arizona law necessarily entailed racial profiling, is there not a great risk of racial profiling when tribal police enforce the federal laws against non-Indians on Indian Reservations? It is far easier for tribal police to discern who does not belong on the reservations they patrol than for Arizona police to discern who does not belong in the United States."
Get the Story:
James M. Thunder: Arizona Police and Tribal Police
(The American Spectator 7/30)
Indian Arts and Crafts Amendments Act:
H.R.725
Tribal Law and Order Act:
S.797
|
H.R.1924
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