The Supremacy Clause and immigration
Is there really any decline on respect for the Supremacy Clause? I don’t believe that there is, and I do believe that it is subject to personal opinion.
The entire basis of the Clause was to eliminate interstate disputes and form overarching rules to control interstate commerce and regulate laws so they conform to a given overall standard, which would be the federal government.
Immigration, Transportation of goods, movement of materials and people from state to state are much of what the clause is all about. Sanctuary cities are not about ideology, but rather about morals — what is the right thing to do. It is also about use of local resources for enforcement of federal regulations, which in some instances can be quite substantial in cost.
Laws change, and this will eventually be worked out in order to make the law reflect the realities of life. Sometimes laws, just like people, age to a point that they no longer are effective. Sometimes bad laws are passed for good reasons that appear to be good at the time, but with time comes the realization that they just made the problem worse. So it seems to be with the immigration laws, which is why we badly need to review them and make them function in the reality we have today.
The problems with sanctuary cities, immigration and drugs have recently been in the news. The international gang MS-13 being one mentioned and how not enforcing our immigration laws is allowing criminals into the country.
I totally disagree with that assessment. Seems that we fail to study history and therefore repeat our errors. Up to the end of World War II, we essentially had no laws regulating drugs. We had experimented with regulating and controlling alcohol — with catastrophic results. Remember Prohibition? Make something illegal and if people really want it, a criminal enterprise will rise to supply what people want. Prohibition failed, only creating a huge criminal enterprise and we got smart and did away with Prohibition.
What did we learn? Apparently nothing. Remember Nancy Reagan and the War on Drugs? Same rules that govern booze can be applied to drugs and we are losing the war on drugs just as we did with Prohibition.
Immigration and MS-13 are totally unrelated things. Decriminalize drugs and you will take the profit to illegal use away and with it the criminal support and drive that created MS-13 and all the drug cartels. Maybe this is because we have undermined our education to the point that history is no longer being taught — so we could learn about our mistakes before making them yet again.
John Pierce
Waikoloa