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Virginia Attorney General rules police can check immigration status

August 3, 2010

  One of the more controversial aspects of the Arizona immigration law which was stopped by Judge Susan Bolton pending the federal challenge was the fact that Arizona police were able to ask for a person’s immigration papers if they were suspected of being in the country illegally.

  Yesterday Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued a legal opinion that Virginia state police are allowed to check a person’s immigration status.

It is my opinion that Virginia law enforcement officers, including conservation officers may, like Arizona police officers, inquire into the immigration status of persons stopped or arrested

  He states that this opinion varies slightly from the provision in the Arizona law because the Arizona law requires a police officer to check immigration status of anyone they have a reasonable suspicion is in the country illegally, whereas in Virginia it would not be mandatory to check immigration status.

  While the laws may vary slightly, Virginia may be about to take a stand against illegal immigration– lining itself up with Arizona against the president.

  When the Obama regime filed a lawsuit against the Arizona law he did it for political reasons; he wanted to get the issue of amnesty back on the table and he certainly has lit a firestorm around this issue. I am not sure when he filed the lawsuit that he realized other states would begin to take sides against him.

  I believe that filing a lawsuit against Arizona shortly before the midterm elections was a giant political miscalculation that is going to hurt the Democrats in the midterm elections.

  The American people are solidly against giving amnesty to illegal immigrants, yet Barack Obama is hellbent on doing just that and people are reminded of this just in time to head to the polls.

  Perhaps Barack Obama thought that filing a motion against Arizona was just a small move that would help to fire up his base; perhaps he thought the issue would fade away after a few days, but as we can see, this is going to be a huge issue in November and I don’t see how this can help Democrats.

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2 Comments leave one →
  1. Matt's avatar
    August 3, 2010 7:52 am

    I think that the Democrats are pretty stuck on the issue you pointed out. Obama did it to engage his base, however, his base is dwindling as it is. More and more people are identifying themselves as Conservative, or moderate. We have the demographics right now, and him firing up his base also fires up ours, which is statistically larger. This all might backfire on the Democrats.

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    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      August 3, 2010 9:02 pm

      Agreed! His base was going to turn out for him no matter what, but as you said this also fires up our base. I think this was a serious miscalculation on his part.

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