Posted by Michael Bryan

The State House Committee on Military Affairs and Public Safety passed HCM2005, which expresses the august and considered judgment of the Arizona House that dismantling internal border patrol checkpoints and "relocating these agents from the streets and highways to the border fence, stationing them three hundred feet apart, and providing a constant patrol along the border fence will stop the crossing of illegal immigrants and result in little need for border patrol agents in the interior of this state."

You sure that 200 feet apart wouldn't be a better deterrent, guys? Come on. This sort of attempt to micro-manage Federal immigration policy and practices is just more political grandstanding by the anti-immigrant AZGOP.

The seeming unconcious hypocrisy of folks who complain about the intrusiveness of the border patrol's permanent internal checkpoints, but none-the-less support intruding on Latino-looking American citizens and residents using local police anywhere in the state, never ceases to amaze.

It's sometimes surprising what comes out of the mouths of our elected representatives on this topic. In the following clip you get to watch State Rep. David Gowan (R-LD30) bellyache about how he doesn't like the Federal government bugging folks like him (non-Hispanic-looking folks, presumably) about their immigration status inside our borders. Apparently, however, it's fine with Gowan for the State of Arizona to do so (as he is a proponent of the SB107), which is intrusive in EXACTLY this way.

Gowan says:

“We're talking the difference between the federal government and the State doing law-enforcement. There is a higher criteria that comes with the federal government. And that's the essence of this, is the federal government, what I was talking about earlier, asking about our citizenship inside America is what perturbs me.”

WTF? What higher criteria? I suspect that criteria is simply whether Gowan, and folks like him, feel that the "right people" are in charge of the law enforcement officers in question. If the officers are "properly" trained only to harass brown people — like Sheriff Joe's crew — it's OK. But if the officers are "improperly" trained not to racially profile — like the Border Patrol under the communist Kenyan Obama — then Gowan no likey.

See Gowan make an ass-hat of himself after the click… (h/t to Sarah Muench for pointing out the video)