A federal judge has placed an injunction on Idaho’s House Bill 83, the so-called “Immigration Cooperation and Enforcement Act” that creates crimes of “illegal entry” and “illegal entry” of undocumented immigrants and directs law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

This is modeled after a similar bill in Texas, also under injunction. At issue is the fact that the federal government, not the states, have jurisdiction over federal immigration laws. Idaho AG Raul Labrador insists that the law is just about stopping criminal aliens, as people can’t be prosecuted under HB 83 unless they have first been suspected of other crimes.

“Suspected of,” not convicted of. So, when the clerk who sees the Mexican mom out shopping with her kids suspects her of shoplifting, he calls the cops. When cops detain her, they discover that she is innocent of shoplifting. Meanwhile, they ask to see a driver’s license or a passport, the proof required in HB 83 to be innocently within Idaho. Without those, they cuff her in front of her kids and stuff her in the squad car, while somebody tries to find someone to care for the now bawling kids. Next, they turn her over to ICE and, who knows, maybe she’s shipped to Louisiana and deported to, who knows, El Salvador?

Repeat this scenario for the Next Door neighbor who calls 911 because there’s a brown-skinned guy walking the streets at night (“suspected of prowling!”). Or the convenience store clerk who calls because a couple of brown-skinned guys are hanging out talking (“suspected of loitering!”). Because we all know damn well nobody is going to be “suspected of” anything if they are, say, a white immigrant from South Africa, and even if they are, forgetting to carry their license, green card, or passport isn’t going to trigger any cops to whip out the cuffs and make calls to ICE.