Congressman Steve King from Iowa's 5th congressional district was a special guest last night on
Libertarian Politics Live. Congressman King entered the debate in the second segment, which was begun by Dan Gainor of
The Business and Media Institute and Dee Dee Blase of
Somos Republican.
The discussion was heated and emotional, and you can listen to it
here en toto. Congressman King was very civilized and tried to bring rationality and clear headedness to a topic that seems to polarize many: The
Arizona Bill SP1070.
The crux of the argument when congressman King entered the fray was what is reasonable suspicion? Dee Dee Blase seemed to think that there is no reasonable suspicion as she believed that anyone of color would be pulled over for that very reason, regardless of their citizenship status. Congressman King told the audience of his expertise and how it relates to his support of the law:
"Well, I have some experience with reasonable suspicion for one thing I drafted the work place drug testing legislation in Iowa and it's been law since 1998. It's got reasonable suspicion in it and since that period of time we didn't rely on law enforcement officers to require that employees undergo a drug test, we just required that the employers set someone up that was educated in the standards that we had and for all these years now, it's 12 years it's been in place, we haven't had a single constitutional complaint or a single piece of litigation on reasonable suspicion...I am comfortable on the standards on reasonable suspicion."
Mr. King continues:
"As I read the Arizona law, it mirrors federal law, it supports federal law". "I cannot imagine a society functioning if local law enforcement just simply ignored or refused to enforce federal law of all kinds including immigration law...There's nothing about this that is draconian, but I do see that the intensity of the opposition to it is causing a problem with regard to race. They are doing this on purpose. The left is ginning this up on purpose for political purposes. They are driving wedges between people and they are undermining America's unity and our unity should be behind the rule of law".
The argument ensued as to whether probably cause or reasonable suspicion is necessary to inquire about someone's immigration status. Dee Dee asked the congressman "What an illegal alien looks like" in regards to what reasonable suspicion or probable cause is when pulling someone over. She talked about beliefs, but not of the law, which she and the Mr. King obviously disagreed. Congressman King asserted that "this is not about race, but about the rule of law".
Dee Dee insisted it was about race, talking over the congressman. She wanted an example of how a police officer could ascertain someone's legal status without involving race. She wouldn't respond to his answer and he reiterated through continuous interruptions by ms. Blasé: "If an officer pulls someone over for speeding, a tail light out, for some activity that is clearly illegal, and that individual, when asked for their identification, have probable cause at this point (the police. ed.), when asked for their identification, if their identification is not the identification of the typical of an american citizen, if it happens to be as I said earlier, a metricular counselor card, I say that's probable cause and goes above reasonable suspicion". Dee Dee's response was "He can't even articulate what an illegal immigrant looks like either". He then asked her if she considered a matricular counselor card reasonable suspicion or probable cause or both. At this point, the air went dead and we actually thought that either she dropped dead, or was apoplectic at having to answer the question. May be it's just seminar caller tactics.
Touché.
What happened then was that she feigned, in my opinion, not hearing the question and asked the congressman to reiterate it.
Basically, she eventually said that she did not agree with the officer asking me, based on reasonable suspicion, my immigration status". She then asked what should happen if she got pulled over as an american, but left her license home and only offered a matricular counselor card (such cards are not given to American citizens, but foreign nationals) as she goes back and forth to Mexico all the time. Forgive me here, but don't you need a passport to enter Mexico and then enter back into the US?
At this point it became a matter of personal opinion on the part of Dee Dee Blasé and informed opinion on the part of the congressman. Being a co-host on the show and being part of it and witness to the conversation, the a priori nature of ms. Blasé's position had become apparent: No matter what, anyone that is not white can and will be pulled over to check their immigration status. Since the hosts are white and the law doesn't affect us, obviously we can't understand. It's another version of the race card. What was is surprising to me, is that these types of arguments I heard from ms. Blasé are the typical emotional strawman arguments we hear from the left. I am surprised she calls herself republican and honestly, may be the tent is too big.
No long after this, because of being talked over by Dee Dee, congressman King left the show abruptly, as he felt Dee Dee was being rude. So did I.
Thank you for reading this blog.
The first half-hour will feature a debate on the Arizona Immigration Law with Dan Gainor from the Business and Media Institute alongside Deedee Base. She's the founder
