Saturday, July 17, 2010

Virginia AG Cuccinelli Supports Arizon Immigration Law

Since leaving the GOP roughly a decade ago, I have watched as the Party has been increasingly taken over by racists and theocrats. The result being, of course, that except for a handful of blacks - including the Party's black RNC chair - the party remains mostly lily white. And despite lip service to the contrary, most of the rank and file members of the GOP base seem to want to keep it that way. Case in point, Virginia's lunatic - and rumored self-loathing closet case - Republican Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, a/k/a Kookinelli, who has filed an amicus brief supporting Arizona's racist immigration act now under challenge by the U. S. Justice Department. Kookinelli is joined by eight other governors - all Republican - in seeking to uphold the Arizona statute that (1) encourages racial profiling, (2) requires all Hispanic looking Arizona residents to carry proof of citizenship papers at all times, and (3) runs afoul of federal law. Seriously, would Kookinelli be joining in this lawsuit if the Arizona law in question was targeting white, English speaking illegal immigrants? Frankly, I doubt it. Oh, and neither would the other Republican governors. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:
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Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has joined with attorneys general from eight other states in a legal brief supporting Arizona's hotly disputed new immigration law.
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The statute, signed into law in April, is considered the toughest in the nation. It directs police enforcing other laws to ask about a suspect's immigration status if there is reason to believe the person is in this country illegally. Other provisions of the law make failure to carry immigration documents a crime and empower individuals to sue government agencies over questions of immigration law enforcement.
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Attorneys for the Obama administration have filed suit seeking to block enforcement of the measure on the grounds that federal law preempts it. Because Arizona's law maintains the "joint federal-state cooperative immigration enforcement program" established by Congress, Cuccinelli said in a statement Wednesday, he is "stunned that the government has sued."
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This isn't first time Cuccinelli has been at legal odds with the federal government. He also has clashed with the government over health care policy and greenhouse gas rules.
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Other state prosecutors who joined the brief include those from Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas. All are Republicans.

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