Representative Cavanaugh News Today

Citizenship to kids who are born in this country, if their parents came here illegally. an idea critics argue flies in the face of the constitution. with me now is democratic state representative and her republican colleague to talk more about this. lets begin the segment by reading the 14th amendment to the constitution in 1868. it says, all persons born or naturalized in the united states are citizens of the united states. no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileg...

Am, yes, sir. jon: to come across the border illegally? >> no, sir. were not talking about that. we are talking about giving the police the right to stop anyone who looks like me. anyone who has certain racial and facial characteristics. thats what were talking about. this law does nothing about the murder. -- about the border, two t does nothing about border security, fencing, it does nothing about the national guard. it simply ignores the border and focuses on people in this country, most of w...

And immigration is a classic example. so i think many -- >> supporters of it say the federal government has failed in their responsibilities to do that and they have no other choice. >> that may be the federal government has failed. that doesnt change the legal doctrine which says vote out your congressman, vote out the president, get the federal government to fix it. but you cant suddenly have a state take over a federal function. i think that is the biggest problem with the law. >> when suppor...

Has been around since 1968. as to his question of who judges, it is a judge that judges. police officers will receive training. already been trained in other areas. they will be updated. when they have reasonable suspicion, they have to articulate it to a judge. if a judge says you dont have it. the case gets thrown out. >> these are not federal officers. these are state officers who have most of them have not been trained to do this. where does it say in the constitution that states have the ri...

Discriminated against. those people who claim they are illegal immigrants. when they do things like this. they are against all immigrants. this is what is happening in arizona. theyre declaring war on all legal immigrants. >> representative cavanaugh, you are a former cop, do you have any concerns the language of this is pretty, its left up to, left up to judges. in reality its left up to local police office tires decide this person seems suspicious or something about their behavior is suspiciou...

>> miguel, the final thought? >> theyre concerned about crime. this is going toy -- to create even more crime. immigrants from now will be afraid to report crimes when they see them. if you are an illegal immigrant and the house next door is burning you are not going to call the fire department. you are afraid you will beep arrested. there is a lot of otherwise law-abiding, undocumented immigrants who are not going to want to deal with the cops at all. this is shameful. >> representative cavanau...

Gives police new power to stop anyone they reasonably suspect of being an illegal immigrant. the question is reasonable suspicion. thats undefined in the bill. arizona republican, state representative, john cavanaugh, joins us, and miguel perez joins me who opposes it. thank you for being with us. miguel, those who support the measure say look it will not lead to racial profiling, somebody has to be doing something suspicious to be approached by the police in question? >> who is to regulate what...

I often do, speak with my spanish accent. that would be enough for me to get arrested. do i need a passport to go to the state, the reactionary republic of arizona. because thats what it should be called. you know, this is a clear violation of my constitutional rights. i would be afraid, i dont feel protected. i feel threatened by this law. >> representative cavanaugh, a lot of latinos around the country say they would feel threatened. is he right if he was standing on a street corner in clothes...

It will never become law. >> representative cavanaugh, what in the bill, specifically says, what, what reasonable suspicion is? because i have looked at it a couple times. we talked about this last night. but other than -- under, you know federal law, and supreme court upheld, if a police officer sees, you know something suspicious, shows commission of a crime or intention to commit a crime that is reasonable and the person can be approached. but other than someone just being illegal, what, what...

Will it hoild up? jeff, will this hold up? >> i think the biggest problem with the bill is not reasonable suspicion question which is a big one, but the question of does arizona have the right to enforce federal immigration laws? there is a doctrine of law, preemption where it says that the united states government, federal government, preempts, takes over certain areas of law. and immigration is a classic example. so i think many. >> supporters of it say the federal government has failed in the...