Civil Liberties

No Roads For You, Arizona Lawmaker Says to Illegal Immigrants (and Bail Jumpers)

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Rep. Carl Seel
Arizona State Legislature

Arizona State Rep. Carl Seel (that's him pictured) is getting plenty of press mileage from his bill banning illegal immigrants from using "public resources" such as roads, public schools, "or the services of any public entity in this state." "Services" apparently include toilets in government buildings, which has local journalists tittering. Oh yeah; bail jumpers and parole violators would have to use the bushes (those aren't "services," are they?) outside the Capitol Complex, too—though that's a recent addition. Seel has been trying to ban furriners from the highways and byways for years, and finally tacked on the other stuff in an effort to convince people he's not just completely obsessed with immigrants.

For the record, Carl Seel is completely obsessed with immigrants, and also a bit of a whack-job birther.

The current (completely not obsessed with immigrants) version of his legislation, HB 2434, reads:

A.  A person commits unlawful use of public resources if the person uses any public resource while present in this state in violation of any regulation, statute or court order or any other operation of law that has determined the person is not lawfully present in this state or that precludes the person from lawfully entering or remaining in this state, including an executive office for immigration review deportation order, a signed agreement to not return to the United States between the person and the United States Immigration and customs enforcement or an order by another state requiring the person to not leave that state while on bail or a similar court order.

B.  Any record that relates to the immigration status or illegal presence of a person in this state is admissible in any court without further foundation or testimony from a custodian of records if the record is certified as authentic by the government agency that is responsible for maintaining the record.

C.  Motor vehicles that are used in violation of this section are subject to seizure for forfeiture in the manner provided for in chapter 39 of this title.

D.  A violation of this section is a class 1 misdemeanor.  A second or subsequent violation of this section is a class 6 felony.

E.  For the purposes of this section, "uses any public resource" includes driving on a public road or highway, accepting any public benefit, attending a public school or using the services of any public entity in this state.

You'll notice that the bill authorizes state officials to snatch motor vehicles from foreigners seeking opportunity in this country (no, I don't care that they're violating immigration laws to do so) and, oh yeah, bail-jumpers. That would be civil asset forfeiture "without court process."

In Seel's favor, he also wants the state of Arizona to tell the feds to stuff their gun restrictions. I don't know how effective such a law would be, but devoting more of his time to even a Quixotic effort to expand freedom would be an improvement over a jihad against immigrants—especially one that uses legalized theft as an enforcement tool.