Well, consider Arizona: right now, I have a grad-student housemate who simply cannot set foot there, despite being here 100% legally. Unfortunately for the purpose of visiting that state, he has noticeably brown skin, and his papers are hundreds of miles away in the home he grew up in. That's a pretty deep restriction on freedom.
Even if someone has their papers easily accessible, it's a very scary thought that if you're driving from one city to another, the government officer has the right to stop you and demand you show your papers for no reason. And that's assuming everything going on is above-board. If he came across a corrupt cop, it's pretty terrifying to think about the possibilities of what could happen.
And this is becoming the norm, simply because we as a society have decided that virtually everything is permitted to "protect our borders."
1) You simply do not understand the law as written. That is not how it works. You do not get randomly stopped because you have brown skin. I know this is a popular misinterpretation of the law, so I understand why you say this.
2) Your example of a corrupt cop: What is your point. If you come across a corrupt law enforcement officer, they can do whatever they want to you. They can plant enough drugs to put you away for a decade. Does this mean we should get rid of police officers? Of course not. Because there is a possibility of corruption in the police forces of AZ that may lead to a few edge cases where people are mistreated and improperly detained, does that mean we should not have peace officers protecting the border at all? Does this mean we should not, when someone commits a crime, be able to ask if they are legal citizens of the United States of America?
My view is that this is not unreasonable. I know many of you disagree. shrugs
3) Why do you put "protect our borders" in quotes. Do you think that the idea of a sovereign block of land with the ability to restrict the input and output of human flow in that area of land is a farce?
I think his point, which is a valid answer to your question, is that we now have laws that force law-abiding citizens to carry their documentation with them everywhere they go. While I believe this is more of an immigration issue than a terrorist issue, I do have to say that something like this would have never passed pre-911. This is fine for nice-lookin white folks, but for everyone else, a law like this can and will be selectively enforced.
The point is that we are slipping further and further into the realm of handing over control of our lives to government bodies whose purpose is neither our safety or freedom, but power.
If you plan on committing a crime, yes. Please carry your documentation with you. If you don't, feel free to carry on with life as normal.
(sorry, I know this is rather flippant and intended to be humorous/tongue-in-cheek.. I simply don't see this radical expansion of slippery-slope philosophy that many of you do.)
Yeah, if you plan on getting pulled over for speeding. Or accidentally getting your car towed, or accidentally getting into a bar fight. Or getting pulled over for driving, ahem, suspiciously. If those things, you should definitely always have your papers on you.
Or witnessing a crime. Or being a victim to a crime. Definite situations where you should plan to have your papers on you.
Most people are not violent criminals. Most people still have run-ins with the police at some point in their life.
Particularly if you have darker skin.
That's why my housemate can't go into Arizona, despite being here legally.
The Soviet Union also had perfectly valid reasons for requiring that everyone have their papers on them at all times. There were genuinely foreign spies moving around, and the government of the Soviet Union had a genuine interest in doing everything necessary to capture and neutralize them. That doesn't change the fact that it's a terrifying encroachment on your freedoms if you've always got to have your papers on you. Particularly if you're a dis-empowered minority.
This is such a ridiculous statement, your friend can't go into the entire state of Arizona out of fear for being harrassed? Hyperbole much?
By the way, I carry my documentation every single day. As do 99% of all of you. It's called a drivers license. You can't operate a vehicle without one, and it's valid proof against Arizona's immigration laws that you are not an illegal alien. So if your friend is pulled over for any reason, he's going to have his proof right there.. Please stop with this baloney that your friend can't enter the state of AZ. It's just silly. If he doesn't want to go to the state as a form of protest against the law, so be it.
re #1 -- i'm going to take a stab in the dark: you're white
Because "how it works" is indeed that people get randomly stopped because they have brown skin. For example, driving while black. You're white so you ignore this, but other people can't. If you cared to understand this, the knowledge is trivially available.
Even if someone has their papers easily accessible, it's a very scary thought that if you're driving from one city to another, the government officer has the right to stop you and demand you show your papers for no reason. And that's assuming everything going on is above-board. If he came across a corrupt cop, it's pretty terrifying to think about the possibilities of what could happen.
And this is becoming the norm, simply because we as a society have decided that virtually everything is permitted to "protect our borders."