Something just occurred to me in rereading the president’s comments on the Arizona law from Tuesday:
“The truth is that 11 or 12 million folks, we’re gonna have to make them take responsibility for what they did,” Obama said. “And the way to do that is to make them register, make them pay a fine, make them learn English, make them take responsibility for the fact that they broke the law.”
Hmm — “make them register.” I know I’ve heard that somewhere. Oh, here it is:
(a) Willful failure to register
Any alien required to apply for registration and to be fingerprinted in the United States who willfully fails or refuses to make such application or to be fingerprinted, and any parent or legal guardian required to apply for the registration of any alien who willfully fails or refuses to file application for the registration of such alien shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not to exceed $1,000 or be imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
So they’re already required to register. That’s from 8 USC 1306(a). It’s also in the new Arizona law. So didn’t the president just endorse the law?