Florida immigration bill would give white folks a pass

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Tim Elfrink

Florida state Rep. William Snyder, the slow-drawling ex-Miami-Dade Police officer who has drafted Tallahassee's version of the hotly debated Arizona immigration bill, is adamant that his law would not lead to racial profiling.

"Race, ethnicity, and national origin cannot be used in making arrests. It's immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional," he said in a recent radio interview.

So why does his bill explicitly offer a free pass to Canadians and Western Europeans, who need only show a passport to be "presumed to be legally in the United States"?

"That language makes it clear that police are targeting only a specific minority," says Susana Barciela, policy director at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.

.....

Snyder drafted his homage in August, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott last week pledged to support the bill if elected.

What few observers seem to have noticed, though, is a bizarre clause Snyder included on page 3. Even if an officer has "reasonable suspicions" over a person's immigration status, the bill says, a person will be "presumed to be legally in the United States" if he or she provides "a Canadian passport" or a passport from any "visa waiver country."

What are the visa waiver countries? Other than four Asian nations, all 36 are in Western Europe, from France to Germany to Luxembourg.

In other words, Snyder's bill tells police to drop their "reasonable suspicions" of anyone hailing from dozens of countries full of white people. How is that not racial profiling?

Snyder backed out of an interview with Riptide, but here's what he said on immigration advocate Subhash Kateel's radio show on 880 AM last week:

"What we're doing there is trying to be sensitive to Canadians. We have an enormous amount of... Canadians wintering here in Florida," he said. "That language is comfort language."

Comfort language, eh?

If Scott wins and Snyder's bill becomes law, we're sure the thousands of Latin Americans who spend their summers in Miami will be ever so comforted.

http://www.miaminewt...e-folks-a-pass/

[^_^ 5,021]

Canada and any visa waiver country - sounds to me like it mirrors existing immigration law.

[Used to be broken 147]

Canada and any visa waiver country - sounds to me like it mirrors existing immigration law.

40% of Illegal Immigrants come to the US on some type of VISA's including tourist, many from VISA waiver countries, the "tourist" has the burden to prove his status is legal in any interaction with law enforcement. Why would giving a "pass" to a Canadian as opposed to someone from the southern hemisphere be mirroring existing immigration law? Are you saying that existing immigration law ignores illegal aliens from VISA Waiver countries?

Edited October 21, 2010 by brokenfamily

[mawilson 2,133]

In other words, Snyder's bill tells police to drop their "reasonable suspicions" of anyone hailing from dozens of countries full of white people. How is that not racial profiling?

Brunei, Japan, Singapore, South Korea are not "full of white people".

[SuperDuper! 230]

Who you callin' "White Folks" like we are HillBillies or somethin'!

[The_Dude 1,142]

Brunei, Japan, Singapore, South Korea are not "full of white people".

S. Korea is, or are you not counting the DMZ?

[^_^ 5,021]

40% of Illegal Immigrants come to the US on some type of VISA's including tourist, many from VISA waiver countries, the "tourist" has the burden to prove his status is legal in any interaction with law enforcement. Why would giving a "pass" to a Canadian as opposed to someone from the southern hemisphere be mirroring existing immigration law? Are you saying that existing immigration law ignores illegal aliens from VISA Waiver countries?

No, I am saying existing immigration law puts up much fewer obstacles to entry for citizens from Canada and visa waiver countries.

[SuperDuper! 230]

S. Korea is, or are you not counting the DMZ?

So you are assuming only white solders there?

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Perhaps other nations should be better allies with us if they want the visa waiver?

Of course this is that whole "walks like a duck, talks like a duck" situation as well.

More than likely an illegal immigrant isn't going to have a passport on them or any other documentation, so this is all a moot argument.

[^_^ 5,021]

Perhaps other nations should be better allies with us if they want the visa waiver?

The country doesn't need to be an "ally". It just needs to have strong passport security and a low refusal rate on non-immi apps.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

40% of Illegal Immigrants come to the US on some type of VISA's including tourist, many from VISA waiver countries, the "tourist" has the burden to prove his status is legal in any interaction with law enforcement. Why would giving a "pass" to a Canadian as opposed to someone from the southern hemisphere be mirroring existing immigration law? Are you saying that existing immigration law ignores illegal aliens from VISA Waiver countries?

DHS monitors VWP overstays and has a set threshold of 2% that would put a participating country on "probabtion". DHS has reported that 31 out of 36 countries are well below the threshold, five were further investigated and the review of 2 out of 5 found that their VWP overstay rate was below 2%. The other reviews were still underway when DHS delivered this report to Congress. While it is true that overstays are a major source of the overall illegal alien population, it's not the VWP travellers that are the culprits. If they were, they would no longer be part of the VWP.

But hey, why bother with factual detail when useless generalizations make a much better case to be outraged about?

III) Overstays

DHS has until now refrained from disclosing and using overstay rates to help determine VWP eligibility because precise rates could not be accurately calculated. However, our systems, particularly our collection and verification of biographic departure records for air travelers, have now improved to the point where we are increasingly confident in the reliability of the data. I am pleased to report that preliminary data strongly indicate that VWP travelers are not a significant source of overstays.

Using standard automated protocols to compare departure data with prior arrival records and immigration status changes, US-VISIT has calculated that in FY 2009, 31 out of 36 VWP countries had overstay rates that were well below the two percent disqualification rate threshold that may lead to a country being placed on probation. US-VISIT is conducting a manual review of overstay records from the five countries that, using automated protocols (but not manual verification), yielded an apparent overstay rate over two percent. Thus far, this in-depth manual review has been completed for two countries and revealed overstay rates below two percent.

Manual reviews of automated overstay records conducted by US-VISIT in the past have consistently shown that a significant percentage of the apparent overstays had in fact departed the United States within the authorized period of admission or had otherwise lawfully adjusted their status in the United States. We are conducting further manual reviews for other countries to reach a point where we are confident that our evaluation is valid. At that point we will likely be in a position to release overstay rates for each VWP country and to begin to use this data to inform VWP decisions.

Edited October 21, 2010 by Mr. Big Dog

[Krikit 1,164]

Oh, come on. Like all Canadians and Western Europeans are all white. Please.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Oh, come on. Like all Canadians and Western Europeans are all white. Please.

Take a step in downtown Toronto... you'll be lucky if you see a white person these days...

[^_^ 5,021]

Take a step in downtown Toronto... you'll be lucky if you see a white person these days...

I was there this summer. Toronto is way whiter than NYC or Jersey (which is what I'm used to).

[Krikit 1,164]

Take a step in downtown Toronto... you'll be lucky if you see a white person these days...

Don't be ridiculous.