HispanicVista Columnists

Kooks and the Constitution

By Raoul Lowery Contreras/HispanicVista.com

May 16, 2005

        It seems that every new California political cycle creates an "out from under the rocks" scenario that draws California political kooks into sunlight.

           This time it is State legislator Ray Haynes (Murrieta/North San Diego County) who is spearheading another unconstitutional grab for police powers that must frighten all Americans. The proper word is constitutional "usurpation" or what friendly Germans would call a constitutional "putsch."

           The GRAB: Haynes’ proposal to go to the ballot to set up a special state police unit that will patrol the border and hound California employers and their employees looking for illegal resident workers. They will have to be everywhere, in every business, in every residence and on every street for there are an estimated 3-4-million illegals in California.

          His partner is California Republican Assembly (CRA) leader Mike Spence. Spence was also behind State Assemblyman Mark Wyland’s attempt to trash the United States Constitution last year.

The Wyland/Spence constitutional cabal failed when they couldn’t convince enough Californians to sign their petition to place a proposal to deny legal benefits for children brought here early in life by illegal border-crossers and to deny drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Being good biblical scholars, Wyland/Spence targeted children for the "sins of their fathers."

           Assemblyman Wyland hooked up with Spence and the tiny and non-influential CRA because he is termed out of office by law and is desperately seeking to replace California State Senator Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside), who is also termed out of office after this term.

           The public failure of Wyland to snatch legal college tuition benefits from California high school graduates with at least three years in California schools embarrassed Wyland’s intelligent constituents. Wyland is an embarrassment to many former supporters, thanks to his alliance with Spence and the CRA.

We now have an alliance of Assemblyman Ray Haynes, Spence, the CRA and what is left of the recall of Gray Davis campaign in the person of Dave Gilliard. It should be noted that Gilliard was successful in the Recal Davis petition campaign only because wealthy San Diego County Republican Congressman Darrell Issa funded the entire effort with a cool million dollars.

           They plan to establish a state police agency at an annual cost of hundreds of millions of dollars (plus billions in future pension benefits). It will snoop around California business and residences of employers of casual labor and babysitters looking for illegal aliens and their employers. It will also patrol to seek and arrest illegal aliens by rousting all Mexican-looking people who must then prove their legality.

           Specifically and a cost of $300 to $400 hundred million dollars a year, something between 1000 and 4000 officers would be hired to enforce federal immigration laws. They would report to the Governor, they would serve as the Governor’s personal police force.

           Haynes proposes "The California Border Police Act" because he thinks that the 1996 federal immigration law -- Section 287 (g) -- permits state and local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws. In California t5hat would also include messengers from the State Treasurer’s office and local meter maids. Is he right? No.

           The federal law allows locals to HELP federal officers (who must request that help) enforce immigration laws, not to enforce them themselves. According to a federal fact sheet on that 1996 law, locals must have a Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government approved by the U.S. Attorney General; locals must also be "trained by federal officers" and locals can only back up federal officers who are present, period, end of argument. They cannot affect an actual arrest for immigration violations.

           Moreover, there are no federal funds to do these things.

           That’s the law. So why does Assemblyman Haynes want to trash the Constitution of the United States by creating a personal police force for the Governor that cannot enforce immigration laws or snoop through private business books and personal residences looking for illegals? Why?

           Why is it that every two years since 1994’s Proposition 187 was approved by voters and torpedoed by the courts have the kooks come out from under their rocks with police state agencies and methods to attack those here illegally?

           If they really wanted to solve the illegal alien problem, they would simply support the President’s efforts to legalize those already here and to allow legal guest workers in when needed. They won’t do that. They refuse to solve the problem. They want a police state, then they can also hunt down those who disagree with them, arrest them and silence them.

           No police state has ever survived for long. An American police state would be no different, even if approved by California voters. There is no judge, Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal that would approve this new California police agency. If Ray Haynes doesn’t know that, he is dumber than he has demonstrated up till now.

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Contreras’ newest book – THE ILLEGAL ALIEN: A DAGGER INTO THE HEART OF AMERICA—published by Floricanto Press (www.floricantopress.com) intellectually destroys the Haynes/Spence/CRA cabal and the "putsch" they are trying to pull off in California. It can be purchased at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com