USA Vs Arizona Reveals Inconvenient Truth

On Tuesday the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona in federal Court.

The legal brief discloses some facts about sloppy practices in the government’s immigration “system” that most Americans do not know, but would be outraged if they did.

Foreigners who are in the country legally are required to register with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and are issued one of several forms of identification.  Federal law requires them to carry the I.D. with them at all times and to show it when asked by any law enforcement officer.

The legal brief filed by the Justice Department objects to the Arizona law provision that empowers local police to ask for ID cards issued to legal aliens by the government.  It says:

However, there are several circumstances in which an alien would not be provided with evidence of registration notwithstanding the federal government’s knowledge of the alien’s presence.  Federal law provides a variety of humanitarian options for aliens – including unlawfully present aliens – who have been victimized or fear persecution or violence, including but not limited to asylum, special visas for victims of trafficking, and special visas for victims of violent crime.  In order to qualify for such programs an alien needs to apply and satisfy the criteria that the program at issue requires.  During the pendency of the application process, an alien may not have evidence of registration even though the federal government is aware of the alien’s presence, has decided against removing the alien, and certainly has no interest in prosecuting the alien for a crime.

These humanitarian programs demonstrate that one aspect of federal immigration policy is to assist and welcome such victims in the United States, notwithstanding possible temporary unlawful presence.  It would therefore violate federal policy to prosecute or detain these types of aliens on the basis of their immigration status – which is often known to the federal government and, for affirmative policy reasons, not used as the basis for a removal proceeding or criminal prosecution.

Not mentioned here are other “humanitarian options” that tens of thousands of aliens apply for, including simple family connections.

Here the government admits that it deliberately allows many thousands – probably  hundreds of thousands – of illegals to stay here pending application for official permission to live here under one of several exceptions to the law.   Thus, there is a category of illegals that aren’t really illegal…but not legal either.

As the government’s own lawyers admit in this brief, it does not grant these people any officially legal status while they await adjudication of their applications, a process that often takes several years.  They are not given a visa or any identification.  But, they aren’t deported either.  They just dwell here, in limbo.

This raises obvious questions: Why can’t the government create an ID card, with an expiration date, and issue it to such people?  Why is the system so “lose?” Don’t expect any reasonable or logical answers from the Obama Administration.

Of the estimated 12 – 15 million illegals, how many have this status, both legal and illegal at the same time?  The most likely answer is that nobody knows because the bureaucracy is too dysfunctional to keep track