Serves Trump-types right if gamble on sports bets cost them immigration

I’ve finally found a reason to think the notion of sports betting isn’t a completely ridiculous idea.

If sports betting winds up offering legal protections ...

For it seems some people, possibly even President Donald Trump himself, now think that the Supreme Court ruling this week giving states the right to decide for themselves of sports betting ought to be legal will actually undermine the legal argument federal officials in this Age of Trump have been making against individual states or communities declaring themselves to be “sanctuaries” that will not assist federal immigration officials in their work.

NONE OTHER THAN the deadly-dull and straight-forward Associated Press reported on this concept, finding that many legal advocates are saying there’s a direct link between the two issues and that Trump can’t very well claim to be able to force local law enforcement to cooperate with immigration if the feds can’t force states to outlaw gambling in the form of sports bets.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the court opinion that now gives states the right to decide how to regulate gambling within their boundaries, wrote, “it unequivocally dictates what a state legislature may and may not do. It’s as if federal officers were installed in state legislative chambers and were armed with the authority to stop legislators from voting on any offending proposals.”

Now I’m not about to claim this is a sure-fire victory for people with an interest in our national immigration policies who’d like to see something other than the bureaucratic mess that currently exists.

But it does sound like somewhere in the legal mindset is the concept that there are limits to law enforcement-types and that we ought not to be thinking of the various jurisdictions as one massive group that is required to think alike.

... to these activists, ...

FOR THE BASIC concept of the “sanctuary city” or the “welcoming city” or many other concepts meant to reassure all people that they’re not going to be harassed by police regardless of their immigration status is this.

It is NOT (even though many conservative ideologues try to falsely claim otherwise) that people within such communities are protected from immigration officials and can hide there.

It merely means that Immigration and Customs Enforcement ought to be required to do their own work. Send their own agents into those communities to do whatever investigation they wish and handle whatever prosecution they deem necessary.

The idea of someone being caught by a local cop in a traffic stop and having to worry that this bit of official attention will draw the attention of ICE is what is improper – if not downright absurd.

SO JUST AS the court now says states have a right to determine whether they want to permit gambling to take place out in the open within their boundaries, some are going to argue that it is now up to local officials to determine how much cooperation they ought to give with relation to immigration – which, if you think about it, is an issue so far beyond most of their comprehensions.

It only makes sense to leave immigration law enforcement to the experts and not think the local beat cop is there to “find foreigners” and have them deported from this country. Because I know full well that the local officials often complain whenever they think some higher-ranking authority is violating their concept of proper jurisdiction and overstep their bounds on some local issue. Only the ideologues can't see this, and it amounts to nothing more than selective vision when it comes to the law and its enforcement.

... will the president be the ultimate loser?

Some people may want to think this line of logic between the two issues is a stretch. There can’t possibly be a connection between placing a football bet and having a non-citizen removed from the United States.

Although considering that the appeals courts have thus far upheld the rulings of federal judges that have held back the Trump administration from withholding federal funds to communities that express sympathy for the immigrant lot in life, I’d have to wonder if placing a bet on this legal connection would be a safer one than betting on a Chicago Bears game – since you just know the moment you put money on it, the Bears will find a way to blow it for you.

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