6 Lawmen Shot in Juarez as Arizona Immigration Law Signed. Law Throws Wrench Into Obama Legislative Blitzkrieg

UPDATE and Correction:

7:oo PM EDT – Six police officers were killed in a drug war shootout in Juarez, Mexico [not in Arizona] shortly after the new Arizona immigration law was signed. [CNN]  This has come days after the AP reported that “[a]fter a two-year battle that has killed more than 5,000 people, Mexico’s most powerful kingpin now controls the coveted trafficking routes through Ciudad Juarez. That conclusion by U.S. intelligence adds to evidence that Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel is winning Mexico’s drug war.”  And all of this is playing out just over the Arizona border.  In short, we are not just talking about immigration when we are talking about crime in our border towns.

But all of this is coming at an inconvenient time for President Obama.  His legislative calendar is set at financial reform not immigration.  Graham and Schumer are hard at work on the draft immigration legislation, OFA on the tactics they will employ to pass it but they aren’t ready yet.  Arizona’s new immigration law has forced the President to comment and he has said he has instructed U.S. authorities to monitor the state’s actions and to “examine the civil rights and other implications” of the legislation. [preview.bloomberg]

In short, Washington will be watching.  Obama has been a leader of  watchers.  That is what he does best.    He lets the blood flow in the streets or on the Afghanistan battlefield and then he proffers a solution – sends in the troops at the 11th hour.  A proactive President he is not.  He can’t think on his feet because they are located elsewhere.

Once again, as in the Gates affair, the President has come out in support of the minority that will be most affected, concerned with the damage that might be done to their relationship with law enforcement, unmindful of the many legal Latinos who will welcome interception of illegals.

He does not trust law enforcement to be fair or to refrain from abusing their new powers. Obama is forgetting  that the  lives of local law enforcement officers will now be in an even more precarious position as they stop cars to check for paperwork and find they have intercepted a drug runner. In short, you cannot ask local law officials to fight two wars concurrently.

Obama should be pushing to get additional federal troops to the Arizona border to back up local law enforcement rather than complain about the possible illegal actions they may take. Ehoes of “the Cambridge Police acted stupidly”  run through his statements on the event.  And he has forgot his own promise to  fix this during the first year of his administration.

Racial profiling will happen but key right now will be to stop the loss of life.  Arizona’s Governor Brewer expects legal challenges. But she has bravely taken action. Something had to be done to protect the lives of ranchers and other citizens at the border.  To protect citizens is a charge Obama took at his inauguration.  He has not done this and it has reached a critical stage.

Republican Senator Lindsay Graham now working with New York’s Senator Charles Schumer on draft immigration reform legislation has provided an update:

[He] has said he’ll introduce legislation only after it’s finished and at least one other Republican signs on. He said this week that any effort to move immigration this year will fail badly because both parties need to “lay the groundwork” politically with tough border-control approaches first.

April 23rd during an on-air CNN discussion, the point was made that with employment at record levels, this is not the time to push immigration legislation.  Realistically, there is no good time to take it on – there hasn’t been a time in decades.  However, today there have been signs that Democrats are now anxious to force through immigration reform before they take up the Supreme Court nomination. [CNN]

With a long hot summer coming up, Obama’s program of change may take another detour while he puts out civil uprisings by unemployed, frustrated, ordinarily civil people.  And he had better watch the battering of the Tea Partiers because their ranks are swelling by the disaffected from many quarters formerly in his column.

NOTE:  Historical background on Obama and immigration found at

http://usliberals.about.com/b/2009/04/09/obama-lukewarm-on-passing-immigration-bill-in-2009-2010.htm

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Tagged: Arizona Immigration Law 2010, CONSERVATIVE BLOG NETWORK, Illegal Immigrants, WORDPRESS POLITICAL BLOG

Posted in: IMMIGRATION