Second Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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SECOND SHORT QUIZ - THIS ONE CURRENT (VS. FROM OUR 1/10/2008 MEETING)

1. What do current polls show with respect to each of the elements of the new Arizona immigration law (production of documents - arrest/detention of anyone without records - racial profiling)?

2. Under current federal law enacted in 1986, what records are American employers required to obtain from each employee to prove her/his right to be in the United States?

3. Under current federal law enacted in 1986, what are the criminal penalties to which American employers are subject for a failure to obtain the records described in Answer 2?

4. Under current federal law enacted in 1986, is it a crime to fail to enforce upon American employers the records provisions described in Answers 2 & 3? What are the penalties for such a failure?

5. Under current federal law enacted in 1986, is President Obama (like Messrs. George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton and George W. Bush) guilty of a failure to enforce the law and subject to the criminal penalties described in Answer 4?

6. Under current federal law enacted in 1986, are the police forces of "sanctuary cities" such as Salt Lake City guilty of a "conspiracy to violate" federal immigration law and subject to the penalties described in Answer 4?

7. If ordinary citizens such as you and I become aware of a person's illegal-immigration status, do we have a legal duty "to rat" on them? Despite our cultural bias against "ratting," does English-American common law require each of us "to rat" on anyone we know to be violating any law? If so, are we guilty as an "accessory after the fact" of the same crime which we failed to report that someone else had committed? Has anyone ever been executed in America for a failure "to rat"?

8. What did Arizona's new immigration law of 1/1/2008 do?

9. What did Arizona's recent immigration law do?

10. Is racial profiling legal/constitutional?

11. As a non-legal matter, should non-U.S. citizens be permitted to work in the U.S. for less than the federal minimum wage - whether they work "off the books" or whether they work "on the books" but are charged exorbitant amounts for food and shelter?

12. As a non-legal matter, should non-U.S. citizens be permitted to work in the U.S. for at least the federal minimum wage while there is unemployment in the U.S. - or should the wages for those jobs be forced by the exclusion of foreign workers to rise to a level at which otherwise-unemployed Americans would be willing to perform them? (After all, "everything has its price"!!!)

13. How much would be withheld (state and local income taxes, social security, medicare, etc.) from, say, an agricultural worker in California earning the federal minimum wage?

14. Would it be legal for a state to impose a special tax on American workers of foreign employees to cover such services as medical care for the workers, schooling for their children, etc.?

15. If states were permitted to impose such taxes on American employers, would that take care of all of the concerns that have inflamed American public opinion and led to the enactment of the most recent Arizona immigration law?

16. Did President Obama pledge to Latino voters during the 2008 campaign that he would tackle immigration reform during his first year in office?

17. Is immigration reform likely to be tackled any time soon?

18. Are the dim prospects for immigration reform any time soon due to the fact that Latinos, who tend to be family-oriented Roman Catholics, would likely vote Republican once immigration reform has been addressed?

19. In this regard, how long does gratitude last in politics?

20. Are there any other considerations that we should be discussing on June 9th? And are there any policy recommendations that have been overlooked that we should be making in one of our six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaigns?