Pete Hoekstra on Arizona’s anti-immigration law

We recently posted a story about whether or not what Arizona has recently done regarding its immigration policy could happen in Michigan. At the time, none of the Michigan gubernatorial candidates had responded to the Arizona law, but now we have a video comment from Pete Hoekstra, which was posted on MLive.com.

Here is a transcription of the response from Hoekstra:

Question: What about Arizona’s immigration law, can you see something like that in Michigan as states rights?

Hoekstra: Well, I think what you are seeing in Arizona, and as you talk about these issues, this is the great thing about when you stand up for the 10th Amendment and state’s rights. Arizona has a very very different problem and very different circumstances than what Michigan has. To say that we are going to take the Arizona law and put it in place in Michigan may or may not work. It probably won’t work because our issue and our problems are very different from Arizona’s.

Question: The thing about the Arizona law is that it is state’s right trumping individual rights, right of search and seizure.

Hoekstra: Well, again, let’s see exactly how this law is going to be implemented in Arizona. There is a lot of rhetoric flying around on both sides of the issue. Again, it’s the beauty of state’s rights. Let’s see if it works in Arizona or there are problems. We will have the opportunity to see that over the coming months. There will be constitutional challenges. Let’s see if they work. And after Arizona moves forward other states can learn from it and hopefully improve or deal with it. Hopefully with this issue, the federal government will do what it is supposed to do – secure the borders. That is the responsibility of the federal government. They haven’t done it.