Immigration quick hits

Two quick posts on the immigration front.

One, a California judge struck down Escondido's law forcing landlords to get verification of tenants immigration status and give that to the city for proofing. I'm not going to pretend to understand the legalese of the suit, but I want to take this chance to say that I think its a bad law. Again, we have law enforcement to take care of these things. Plus, I can't figure out how it works. Do landlords ask for status from everyone? I don't have any immigration proof. Or does she (I'm so progressive) only target those she thinks are immigrants? If it's everyone, does it make sense to have a city look over every applicant? Escondido has about 135,000 people, seems like a lot of forms to clarify.

The other is about flags. In Pahrump, NV you can't fly a foreign flag alone. Off the bat, this a gross violation of the First Amendment. What's also interesting is what does "fly" mean with respect to this law? Looking at the reason behind the law,

flag restriction was a reaction to nationwide demonstrations in May against a crackdown on illegal immigration. He said he didn't like seeing protesters waving Mexican flags and demanding immigrants not go to work that day.

it may mean just carrying a flag of another country. What about on a shirt? Or a bumper sticker? I love the sensibility of any law that starts from, "I don't like it when people..."

However I came around when I read this,

"In Pahrump, we had Mexican restaurants closed that day," he complained. "Only one restaurant stayed open."

Now that I understand. It's totally unacceptable to get between a man and his burrito. Why there oughtta be a law...