RUSH: San Ramon, California. Raymond, you’re next, and welcome.
CALLER: Rush, thanks for the great job that you do. I’m an employer, I’ve been in business for 20 years, and if I all of a sudden decided to create a ‘sanctuary business’ and not check documents for people coming to work for me, I would quickly find myself in violation of the law, maybe in jail. But yet here we have the current administration telling law enforcement not to check the very documents that I’m required to check by law because, after all, I’m the criminal! I create jobs. As the one-note samba, conga line media constantly pronounces that employers are the problem for illegal immigration and we have to crack down on them. So I think what the administration is saying is, we need to have a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ at the border; ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ at our hospitals and schools; ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ for our social services. But once that illegal tries to get a job, now we crack down on the real criminal: The employer.
RUSH: That’s exactly right. That is exactly right, and they’re misrepresenting it. I want to say this again: Obama and everybody on the left is misrepresenting the Arizona law. Again, I have here this from Kris Kobach, I’m not sure how he pronounces his last name. He’s a professor. He’s the primary author of the Arizona legislation. He said, ‘This law only kicks in when a police officer already has made a lawful contact with the person such as stopping him for breaking another law,’ and it doesn’t take effect until summertime anyway, but it’s ‘already having an effect on the state’s underground economy.’
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RUSH: Jan Brewer was on Greta’s show last night, the governor of Arizona, and Van Susteren says, ‘Does Arizona feel abandoned by national leaders on the issue of immigration?’
RUSH: So Van Susteren says, ‘The borders still haven’t been secured. Why do you think everybody talks about it but it hasn’t been done?’
BREWER: It’s very, very frustrating. Arizona is of course catching the brunt of it all. It is unfortunate because it is illegal and is their federal responsibility to secure our borders, it’s not just illegal immigration, terrorists that come across, they’re devastating our ranchers down in southern Arizona, drop houses, kidnapping, automobile accidents, extortion, drugs, the spillover with the drug cartels, we’re facing all of it. And we’re not going to put up with it any longer, and I hope that now that we’ve got Senate Bill 1070 signed and ready to go into law, that we’ll get somebody’s attention. But it is the federal government’s responsibility to secure our borders. States cannot sustain it.
RUSH: Right on, right on, right on, right on. Then the next question: ‘I don’t know whether a court will declare a portion or all of your statute unconstitutional. There’s one part that has caught many people’s eyes. President Obama has described it as misguided. What is your reaction to Obama’s description?’
BREWER: He has a right to say whatever he wants to say, but ‘misguided,’ I think he’s wrong. We have a responsibility, I have a responsibility to the people of Arizona, and I’m sure he’s concerned because of the brouhaha and overdramatic comments about racial profiling. I made perfectly clear when I signed the bill that we would not tolerate racial profiling. Our law is exactly like the federal law, and if the Feds won’t come in and protect us, then we will come forward and protect ourselves. We have no other choice.
RUSH: Exactly right, we have no other choice. It’s Obama and the federal government not enforcing the law that’s forcing all of this other action. Phoenix, Arizona is becoming the kidnap capital of the world. Where’s the outrage here? And here’s our postpartisan, postracial president now claiming that all this is racial profiling when he knows damn well that’s not what it is. Nobody in Arizona can be pulled over because of their race or because of the way they look. The cops can’t engage ’em unless they’ve got reason to on some other grounds, traffic stop or what have you, suspicion of robbery. They’re just lying through their teeth about this. And it’s plain as day to anybody who wants to inform themselves about it.
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RUSH: We go to Fort Worth, Texas. Jeff, thank you for waiting, sir. You’re on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Rush, mega coyote-killing dittos from the great state of Texas.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: My question, why is it when a bank is robbed the local police show up, or even the kidnappings in Phoenix, why are the local police involved? They’re federal crimes. If it’s a federal crime, how come the local police get involved?
RUSH: You got me.
CALLER: Well, I mean they say they can’t enforce, you know, federal law in Arizona because it’s a federal law. Well, how come your state has a National Guard? I mean the Constitution says that, you know, the United States —
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RUSH: Michelle in San Angelo Texas, what I love about San Angelo, Texas, is you have to be going there to get there. You will never accidentally run into the place. How are you, Michelle?
CALLER: Absolutely. Absolutely, Rush. And I have been waiting many a year to talk to you and I will say special prayers that I got through today.
RUSH: Well, thank you very much.
CALLER: Well, thank you. Listen, I am beyond, beyond frightened, terrified, and livid listening to this mess going on in Arizona because we are watching this with very close eyes. If they think, if the rest of the country thinks that it’s just Arizona that’s dealing with this, they are so incredibly wrong. We are already dealing with the effects of this in Texas, all of these border states, we know exactly what they’re going through. We’ve been waiting for somebody to do exactly what you said, which is, you know, your very uninformed caller earlier who proposed that we put a plan in place as Republicans. The plan is there, all we need to do is enforce it and that’s what Arizona is doing. But we’re watching very closely because literally running through my front yard is a path that goes straight from the border. If those people are getting pulled off their ranches, they’re being infiltrated, people are living on their land and they can’t kick ’em off, they’re being killed, raped, kidnapped, I am watching what they do because we are next, and when we’re next then it’s just going to go straight up through Texas —
RUSH: Exactly, look, I heard just after this Think Progress wonk city blog, whatever it is, they’re a very liberal blog, very afraid that more states now are thinking of taking up the Arizona law at seven. I just heard that Ohio is thinking of an Arizona-like law, Ohio, which Ohio voted Democrat last time, but maybe not the next time. Anyway, Michelle, thanks so much. You’re exactly right.
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RUSH: Patrick in Green Bay. It’s great to have you on the program, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Yes, sir. Big fan. Thanks for having me.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: My point is that, you know, this immigration problem has gone on for so long that although this Arizona thing is a good step in the right direction, I still think that the only way that this is gonna get fixed is if we immediately close the border — and, unfortunately, I also think that we’re going to have to eventually grant amnesty to the 15 million illegals that are here. Because, you know, they got roots here, they got family. It’s kind of our screw up, and I think that’s the only way that we’re going to get around the problem.
RUSH: Well, I don’t disagree. Look, I have never on this program advocated mass deportation. It isn’t practically, it isn’t going to happen. You have nailed it? Border security is the key. Stop it at this point. Where we are now is it. Everybody from this day on gets in here legally. But the Feds aren’t doing it. They’ve already got laws to secure the border and they’re not doing it. This is why Arizona is moving in to take care of itself, and the reason the Feds aren’t doing it is because there are people in both parties who want the votes of these people, pure and simple. It’s not about compassion for then. It’s not about the fact they ‘have families here.’ It’s not about they ‘want a better life.’ They are potential voters — and from the Democrat side it’s a twofer. Not only are they potential voters, they’re also potential wards of the state. So the way they look at it, they can’t lose.