Warrantless Tom

Holy shit. Tom Gallagher is advocating that Florida law enforcement officers shouldn't need a warrant to make arrest.

1. Give Florida law enforcement officers the power to arrest and detain those who have violated federal immigration law. Florida law currently does not allow state and local law enforcement personnel to make warrantless arrests for violations of federal immigration law. This must be changed. State and local police should have the authority to address immigration violations that they come across in the course of their normal duties. For example, if a state or local policeman reasonably believes that a person has violated federal immigration law, Florida law should allow the officer to detain that person and give federal officials the opportunity to take him into custody.

To be clear, state and local law enforcement should not be required to enforce federal immigration law—whether to do so involves their discretion and assessment of how best to use their resources. Nor should state and local officials seek to displace federal officials as the primary enforcers of immigration law. Rather, this proposal is based on the commonsense notion that state and local police should have the full legal authority they need to protect our people and to uphold the rule of law.

In the world according to Tom Gallagher, Florida law enforcement should not be "required" to enforce immigration law. Then why should these same law enforcement officers be given the power to make unwarranted arrest? I fail to believe that Gallagher actually takes the issue seriously. If law enforcement see a potential immigration they can legally use probable cause. The exceptions would be entering a house. Police would just wait ouside until the warrant arrived.

Unwarranted searches have been a political loser for Bush. Gallagher really has a politically tin ear if he thinks this is going to help him become Governor in a state with a growing Hispanic voting base.