"Hey! Just 'cuz we're not doing the job..."

Uncle Sam takes exception to others picking up the slack for him:

"The court by no means disregards Arizona's interests in controlling illegal immigration and addressing the concurrent problems with crime. But it is not in the public interest for Arizona to enforce preempted laws."
-- U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton

By 'preempted' the judge means it's an area of federal jurisdiction. I won't argue with that; the Constitutional compact among the States delegated certain powers to their agent, the Federal Government, to do things on their behalf. Securing the borders was one of those tasks.

But... if I delegate a job to you, you fail to do it, and I angrily take care of the task myself, doesn't it seem a little silly to berate me for getting the job done? In essence, that's what's happening in this ruling.

I was once taught you can delegate authority, but not responsibility. The States delegated authority to Uncle Sam to do certain things... most of which he is botching mightily these days. In the face of that, the States have an obligation to ensure those critical functions are still performed. That's what Arizona is doing. If you read the 'controversial' bill closely, you find it levies no new requirements on citizens/residents that don't already exist in federal regulations. The difference is merely that somebody (Arizona officials) might actually enforce these provisions for a change.

So the sad fact is Uncle Sam's throwing a temper tantrum, saying "hey... that's my job... even if I'm not doing it!"

Stand firm, Arizona. Stand firm.