GOP State Legislative Leadership Wants to Give Away a Veto Over Funding of Local Police Agencies

Most of the GOP leadership in the state legislature think that the Attorney General and any County Attorney should get a veto over state funding for any police force in the state who fails to adequately serve the political agenda of the anti-immigrant crusaders of the GOP.

Sponsors of HCR 2039, seek to deputize every state, county, city, and town employee to enforce federal immigration laws. The great kicker in the scheme is to enable any County Attorney or the Arizona Attorney General to impound the state funding of any police agency in Arizona (i.e., not limited to those in their own jurisdictions, which encourages playing politics with the safety of people who aren’t their constituents and thus can’t retaliate at the ballot box) if he or she, at their sole discretion, determines that the agency has adopted any policy that prevents, or even limits, personnel from determining or reporting immigration status to ICE.

That means that Maricopa County Attorney, serial grandstander, and wanna-be governor Andrew Thomas could effectively cripple any police agency in the state if he believes they are in any way limiting identifying or reporting undocumented immigrants. And there is no appeal process and no due process.

Now, far be it from me to tell anyone’s racist granny how to hate on the brown folks, but I know a badly drafted law when I see it. Giving any County Attorney veto power over state funding off any police agency, with no appeal, no recourse, no time limit, and no check on their discretion beyond some vague statutory language is just begging for trouble.

I can only conclude that in their zeal to take yet another whack at undocumented persons, the GOP leadership has abandoned all proportion or caution. And they are playing their polemic wack-a-Mexican game with the funding and operations of our local police forces.

Whatever happened to Republicans being in favor of law and order?