In "The Wrong Approach At The Wrong Time ",  I discussed the new Arizona immigration law and why I believe it to be a wrongheaded expansion of government and intrusion on individual liberty, as well as a political mistake that will turn away many Hispanic voters from the Republican Party.  Upon further reflection (and some more reading), I've discovered that there's even more not to like in the new law.

Among the provisions of the new law is a system of fines for employers found hiring immigrants without proper documentation.  It proscribes several methods for determining the legal status of potential employee.  It also makes it illegal for an illegal immigrant to ask for work.  As Steve Landsburg points out:

The anti-immigration hysterics keep warning us that foreigners want to come over here and exploit our welfare system. The insincerity of that stance is exposed whenever, as in Arizona, its proponents set out to prevent those very same foreigners from coming here and working.

He further muses that "It’s idiotic, hateful and destructive to put obstacles in the way of productive activity."  I agree.

Grover Norquist notes that

Laws that punish businessmen for hiring the wrong people will not simply drive away Hispanics, Asians, Irish, Poles, and others but begins to break the previously strong bonds between small-business men and the Republican party.

He also wonders whether or not "putting folks in jail for getting up early in the morning and offering to work is a very Republican idea."  Indeed.

In the previous installment, I noted that the law enforcement officials are charged with verifying the immigration status of anyone with whom they have "lawful contact" and about whom there exists "reasonable suspicion" that the person is an illegal immigrant.  What I didn't realize is that it isn't just law enforcement officials tasked with this duty — any "agency of this state or a county, city, town, or other political subdivision of this state" is also tasked thusly.  The entire state is now an extension of the police, all tasked with somehow determining who is suspicious of being illegal.  And, because there are penalties that can be assessed for not following the statute, law enforcement officials have an incentive to ignore far more egregious crimes — for which there is no penalty assessment — in favor of checking immigration status.  Never mind that car theft going on if someone looks like an illegal immigrant.  Is that an exaggeration?  Perhaps, but law enforcement officials are no different than anyone else:  they tend to respond to incentives.  There's now in Arizona a large incentive to focus on illegal immigration to the detriment of other, more serious (and liberty or property infringing) crimes.

After further review, the initial indictment stands and is strengthened:  Arizona's immigration law is bad policy and bad politics.  It is truly the wrong approach at the wrong time.