Blah Blah Blah immigration…

A.G. Eric Holder had to answer a multitude of questions from the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday regarding racial profiling in the new Arizona immigration bill. Although Holder did specify that he had not read the bill yet and could not comment on it, he responded to questions regarding the broader issue of racial profiling, he reacted to the inefficiencies inherent in any policy that promotes racial profiling. Specifically, regarding terrorism, Holder noted that Al Qaeda is aware of what the US government is looking for from its terrorists. He articulated that Al Qaeda is already trying to pick people that the US wouldn’t expect.

AQ’s most recent choice, Faisal Shahzad, was a naturalized citizen. Surely it would not seem appropriate for a naturalized citizen to try to attack the US. However, on the point of racial profiling, Shahzad was no John Doe USA. He was not a suicide bomber, but he is Pakistani. He is Muslim. New York 1 interviewed a former member of Giuliani’s investigative team in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 who commented that this instance of terrorism was most likely caused by a domestic terrorist. Had it been and extremist terrorist he would not have run away and likely would have “martyred himself”
Shahzad did not match the profile of a foreign terrorist because he didn’t kill himself. Even though he is a legal citizen, did he look different than a Pakistani individual in the country illegally? Racial profiling is not something I think is good, and I do think it is a tremendous danger. Holder, however, should have been a bit more careful with this example. In a way he suggested that racial profiling would not have made this case particularly worse.