This may be one of the best lines of dialogue I’ve read in the paper in a long time.

According to Howard Fischer’s article about Arizona’s continuing effort to deny drivers licenses to Dreamers, one of the federal appellate judges got a bit testy—maybe “truthful” is a better word—with an Arizona assistant attorney general trying to make the case that the state should be able to reenact the license ban another judge threw out last December.

Judge Harry Pregerson pointed out that those in the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program have been driving legally since a trial judge ordered the state to reverse its ban and begin issuing them licenses in December.

“We know—at least I know—that no horrible thing has happened on the highways of Arizona since this went into effect,” he said during arguments here.

He then addressed Assistant Attorney General Dominic Draye, who was asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse what the trial judge had ordered.

“What is the problem?” he asked.

“Does it come down to racism?” Pregerson continued. “Does it come down to discrimination against these people? What else does it come down to?”

That suggestion left Draye confounded.

“Judge, I wish you wouldn’t say things like that,” he responded.

But Pregerson would not back down.

“I’m saying it because it’s the truth,” the judge said.

“Judge, I wish you wouldn’t say things like that.” Priceless. “Please don’t call our racist attempts to deny drivers licenses to Dreamers ‘racism.’ We prefer to refer to it as ‘rule of law’ when we screw over Latinos.”

This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2015.

12 replies on ““I’d Like To Buy a Euphemism, Pat””

  1. That’s some real big-city lawyering right there! Glad to see our tax dollars going to such a worthy endeavor.

  2. Back in the Day, Nazi’s were a proud bunch in snappy uniforms, never afraid to spew hate for the party’s cause; nowadays they hide in $500 suits and speak their hate only in code words and innuendo, shameful how they have abandoned their founding principles

  4. Let’s try to think where else euphemisms are used.
    We have:
    illegal alien
    unlawful migrant
    undocumented immigrant
    unauthorized migrant
    undocumented worker
    immigrant
    migrant
    Dreamers

  5. You left out ” future Democrats”. Drivers licenses are all about ID’s ID gets you first world welfare benefits and the opportunity to vote for more of them paid for by real tax paying citizens. That seems to be the essence of the ” dream” .

  6. Hate on Latinos? Hate on Mexicans? Racism?

    How about, we don’t provide state driver’s licenses to people who are not American citizens, temporary workers, international students or legal residents.

    I love some American Latinos. But if I don’t want a Mexican citizen to obtain an AZ driver’s license I am a racist?

    Do you even care about Americans or Arizona at all David? What do you care about? Being called a racist because you have opinions because you happen to be white?

  7. Actually drivers licenses are about transportation and work. Dreamers cannot vote. That tired meme that this is all about voting for Democrats is so ridiculous. According to Gallup, 87% of Americans want the 11 million undocumented people already here to have a path to citizenship.
    Undocumented immigrants pay taxes too. Undocumented people “who work paid more than $11.8 billion in state and local taxes in 2012, even while they were living illegally in the country.”

    But I know why republicans want an underclass of people in the US, disparage Dreamers, and overtly decry illegal immigration. It’s the cover for covertly employing and exploiting the undocumented in the workplace.

  8. Ha, greedy businesses play off the pro-worker, pro-minority liberals against the racist and/or pro-law and order Republicans. Meanwhile the businesses get the best of both worlds: cheap, 3rd world labor force that can’t complain about working conditions, and taxpayers pick up the tab for the benefits (medical care, education, etc.) as well as costs from inevitable overpopulation.

    Driver licenses are just another step to normalizing this cycle. That’s why we should oppose them as well as “comprehensive” immigration reform that is just a continuation of the cycle of importation of labor to keep Americans’ wages low.

  10. How do undocumented illegals pay taxes without an SS#? The employer needs to complete a 941 report each quarter and identify employee with holdings.

    Plus how do the illegals file a return ?

  11. Ya know, Pima Mujar, a majority of the people in this nation didn’t care a whit about the Confederate flag and yet a very noisy minority was able to skew the issue. Why do you now feel a different minority should not have the same loud voice?

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