The federal government has a Constitutional responsibility to protect the country from an invasion.  Article Four, Section Four makes that clear. 

We have historically—with some notable exceptions—done a pretty good job at that.  Even though Americans have been attacked on U.S. soil, the country has never been occupied by a foreign power.

But what if Washington became complacent one day, dawdling while enemy ships converged, let’s say, off the coast of Virginia.  I suspect the loyal citizens of the Commonwealth would, upon seeing that Washington was asleep, muster its own defense as best it could.

That scenario is not too far off from what’s happening in Arizona.  The Arizona legislature has passed and the governor has signed a bill into law that essentially gives the state the authority to enforce the federal immigration laws.

Supporters say the state is being overrun with illegals—there are almost one-half million—that strain social services, drive down wages and, in some cases, participate in gang-related crime.  Opponents of the new law say it’s a draconian measure that encourages racial profiling and that illegals are a valuable part of the work force.

Here is the most controversial portion of the law:

“For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or agency of this state…where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall me made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person.”

What exactly is the problem here?   The police, already appropriately constrained by the Fourth Amendment’s protection against “unreasonable searches and seizures,” can now handle immigration cases the same way they enforce all other laws; they follow up when they have a reasonable suspicion.

Critics say the problem is knowing the definition of “reasonable.”  Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer didn’t help her cause when she stumbled through an answer on how the police will identify an illegal.  “I do not know what an illegal immigrant looks like,” she said.

The credibility of the new law is further damaged by the rabid support of some who act like the xenophobic “Bill the Butcher” in the film Gangs of New York.   In the movie, Bill challenges the Irish immigrants to a fight for control of The Five Points of New York City saying it’s “Us natives born RIGHT WISE to this fine land or the foreign hordes defiling it!"

Bill’s history was a little off since under a strict definition of “native,” just about all of us would fall into the “foreign hordes” category.   America has always aspired to be less about the circumstance under which you were born and more about whether you subscribe to the American ideals.

Those ideals include not only individual liberties, equality and the rule of law, but also the Constitutional obligation by the federal government to carry out its responsibilities. On the matter of immigration, the federal government has failed miserably. 

We don’t know yet how, or even if, the Arizona law is going to be enforced, though the hysteria conjures up images of the gulag.  What we do know is that the state is trying to find a solution to an enormous problem and so far the response from Washington, which bears responsibility in this mess, has been primarily to criticize the soldiers on the front lines.