Arizona, Illegal Immigration, and the Tenth Amendment

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
April 30, 2010

Colombian singer Shakira visited Phoenix the other day to instruct Americans on their Constitution. “I’m not an expert on the Constitution but I know the Constitution exists for a reason,” she said. “It exists to protect human beings, to protect the rights of people living in a nation with or without documents. We’re talking about human beings here.”

Latin pop star Shakira instructs Americans on their Constitution.

In the wake of Arizona passing a law that attempts to do what the federal government does not and should not — protect the state from an influx of illegal immigrants — a lot of folks are screaming that the new law is unconstitutional.

Is it? Nope.

Shakira and apologists for illegal immigration — and forcing the residents of Arizona to pay for it — need to actually read the document.

The Constitution does not mention immigration. It does not specify rules for immigration. Article I, Section 8 says: “(Congress shall have the power) To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization,” not regulate or enforce (or not enforce) immigration.

Period.

Beyond that the reader needs to drop down to the 10th Amendment. It reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

In short, dealing with “illegal immigrants” (trespassers) is a duty reserved for the states, not the federal government.

But if you follow the corporate media you wouldn’t know this. You’d think the Constitution protects illegal immigrants.

Here’s what the Southern Poverty Law Center believes: “Arizona’s newly adopted immigration law is brazenly unconstitutional and will undoubtedly trample upon the civil rights of residents caught in its path… Quite simply, this law is a civil rights disaster and an insult to American values.”

In fact, the SPLC and the corporate media, now screaming about the Constitution, are completely out of touch with it and American values (or rather to principles specified in the founding document).

On May Day (a communist holiday) millions of people will take to the streets and demand that Arizona allow a tidal wave of illegal immigrants to flood over the border. Al Sharpton and other ambulance chasers will scream about civil rights for lawbreakers and trespassers. Some of them will say Arizona has violated the Constitution. This will be a patent lie or at best a distortion based on ignorance.

In America, circa 2010, the Constitution is dead. Millions of Americans have no idea what the document says. They are intellectually lazy and depend on a deceitful corporate media to translate the Constitution in 30 second soundbites.

Shakira said the Constitution “exists for a reason.” Indeed it does. The Constitution exists to provide a framework for the organization of the federal government and for the relationship of that government to the states and the people.

It is short and sweet. It does not contain any language about immigration.

As the Tenth Amendment instructs, such issues shall be left to the states. And that is exactly what the state of Arizona is doing.