Tips for living in  or visiting Arizona

In the wake of Arizona adopting the most draconian state immigration law in the nation, where local police are almost required to check to see if you are legally in the state,  residents and tourists alike are wondering, “what do we have to do?” to avoid being thrown in jail and deported because you can’t prove you are a citizen or legally inside the country.

US Passport: A valid US passport should work in most situations. While you are not probably accustomed to carrying your passport everywhere you go in your daily life inside the US , Arizona is not exactly really a pat of the United States . Get used to the potential of being asked to prove you are a citizen when stopped for running a red light, speeding, or just trigger a repair order for a broken windshield. Many will object to the need of carrying a passport to travel around inside a US state. Vote for a Democrat in the next state legislature election.

Arizona Drivers License: So far, it is claimed that an Arizona Drivers License will keep you from being deported. However the state has refused to participate in some kind of federal secure drivers license program, and state residents know the only thing our drivers licenses prove is how bad we looked the day they took our license photo, so given a choice of a passport or a driver’s license, we recommend the passport.

Out of State Drivers Licenses: The bet is these won’t work. No one in Arizona trusts the state governments of California , New York , Massachusetts or those other paces snow birds come from. that elect Democrats to Congress. So bring your passport. You are in fact going to a foreign country we call Arizona .

Social Security Card: No way Jose. Millions of illegal aliens have fake social security cards and numbers, which are a windfall to the Social Security Administration because the illegals will never collect any benefits. It is rumored some enterprising Arizonans have posted their Social Security numbers where illegals can copy them down, and have hundreds of people generating payments to their retirement accounts.

Drive careful out there. Strictly obeying the state’s traffic laws should reduce the probability of being subjected to a citizenship check. Supposedly, you can’t be stopped just because you look like an illegal alien. But once you are pulled over, the argument is the cops cannot avoid asking.

Make sure your head lights and tail lights and turn signal and license plate light work, and fix your cracked windshield. You can be pulled over by a cop for any of the foregoing and that’s a legal stop. Cops use these excuse to have a look see as to who you are and run your plate and license to see if there are any warrants out on you.

Signal when you change lanes. A very common excuse for being pulled over is to fail to signal when you change lanes. If you’ve had to go to Traffic School , you know this.

If you look like an illegal alien (which about 25% of the state’s population will qualify”) chances are excellent you will be asked your citizenship status and have to prove it.

If you look decidedly Anglo…blond hair, blue eyes, pale white skin…chances are you won’t be asked to prove your citizenship status. However, Hispanics are demanding that the hassling of people should be proportionate to the Hispanic/Anglo population according to the Census…thus 75% of the people checked for legal status should be Anglo. Anyone want to bet this is the way it will go down? {Note: There are a lot of blond, blue eyes Mexicans…who happen to have Spanish ancestry)

If you look like a Native American…well…what’s new.  We’ve never heard of a Native American who wasn’t stopped by a cop for some silly reason. When are the Indian Nations going to start requiring Visas  or proof of spending money in their casinos for Arizonans to enter their lands?

The good news is that if you are African American, this is about the only new police law ever passed in Arizona that won’t give the cops another reason to hassle you. We don’t have a lot illegal immigrants coming into Arizona from African nations or the Caribbean .

If you are Arab, Persian, or of some other Middle Eastern origin. You look like a Mexican to Arizona cops. However, it probably won’t help to try and explain where you really came from because then you will be a suspected al Qaeda terrorist. Better to pretend to be a Mexican and show them your passport, and if you’re a visitor with a foreign passport, show them  your Visa.