Protest over illegal immigration bill in Arizona turns into a riot

posted at 11:38 am on April 26, 2010 by Cassy Fiano
[ Immigration ]   

From Human Events we get this video from pro-illegal immigrant protestors in Arizona this weekend. On Friday, the protestors gathered at the state capitol… and promptly started a riot.

New aerial footage has surfaced of the violence that broke out at the Arizona state capitol building after a new illegal immigration bill was signed into law on Friday. In stark contrast to peaceful Tea Party rallies, the pro-illegal immigration protesters took to the streets pelting police with rocks and water bottles as a means to voice their discontent.

The new footage shows the riot was not quite as “small” as media reports initially indicated.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the new state immigration bill into law on Friday causing a great deal of heartburn for supporters of illegal immigration. The law forces Arizona state agencies and law enforcement to aggressively comply with federal immigration law.

Here’s the video:

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like pelting police officers with rocks and bottles isn’t the best way to get what you want in this situation.

Frankly, the rioting seems to do nothing except bolster the argument for why this bill was needed. The federal government has failed Arizona residents. Despite growing numbers of crime — drug smuggling, assault, rape, kidnapping, murder — nothing has been done to secure the borders or crack down on illegal immigration. While not all illegal immigrants are violent criminals or drug smugglers, they are all criminals. Even if our borders aren’t well-enforced, it is still a crime to cross them illegally. The federal government has just sat back and let it happen. The state of Arizona responded to the overwhelming crime… and the protestors of this bill responded to the state with violence.

Kind of just proves the whole point of why this bill was needed, doesn’t it?

And what are people so angry about? The bill requires law enforcement officials to basically do nothing more than aggressively enforce our immigration laws. Arizona voters overwhelmingly approve of the bill, and that includes a majority of Democrats and independents. Something has to be done in Arizona, and if the federal government won’t step up, then the state absolutely should.

If illegal immigrants weren’t committing such high numbers of criminal acts, then I have no doubt that Arizona lawmakers would be looking the other way, just like the federal government is. But the crime makes it impossible for lawmakers to ignore the problem. It’s real easy for Obama to sit up in his ivory tower in Washington D.C., far removed from the problem, and criticize the state. He doesn’t have to fear for his life or his family’s lives. He doesn’t have to worry about his daughters being kidnapped. He doesn’t have to worry about drug smuggling in his backyard. When you have to deal with that kind of criminal activity every day, then you want to act. It’s why voters are so in favor of this bill. They want the crime to stop. And the people who are protesting the bill can’t even do so without any violence.

Why should Arizona not aggressively enforce immigration laws, when the pro-illegal immigration crowd can’t even protest peacefully?

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary, or follow her on Twitter!

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