Pulling The Plug

The quest to deny anything and everything to illegal immigrants in Arizona in order to turn everyone in the state into deputy ICE continues unabated.  This week, it's cutting the power.

Barry Wong (R-AZ), a candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission — which is responsible for final decisions on granting or denying utility rate adjustment, among other things — wants to save utility customers from future rate hike by shutting off the power, and other utilities, to undocumented immigrants. Wong, who is the grandson of Chinese immigrants, explained that his plan would require utility companies to verify the immigration status of new customers and weed out existing customers in the country illegally:

“We shoulder and we all share the costs,” said Wong, who is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission. “Granted they pay for it, but as we use more electricity overall then utilities will have to eventually build more power plants.” [...] “The [state] constitution gives the Corporation Commission specific authority to deal with rate-making which is setting the price that we pay for the electric, natural gas, telephone service, private water companies,” Wong said. [...]

Wong said he would give customers plenty of advance noticed before any utilities are shut off. “You wouldn’t shut down somebody’s power the next day. You put people on notice,” Wong said. “I think they have to make their own decisions. It’s an individual responsibility of how they’re going to take care of it themselves without the utility.”

So now Arizona's power companies are expected to serve as immigration cops even though they have no training, no plan, and no legal way to verify immigration status.  Also, who's going to pay for the training and implementation of the Power Cop Plan here?  Arizona taxpayers, Arizona power customers, or both?

At what point do we draw the line on drafting people to verify immigration status before selling goods and services to Arizonans?  The Public Library?  Paramedics and hospitals?  Schools?  What about ice cream vendors?  They use public utilities and power to keep their ice cream cool, there's a taxpayer interest in drafting them to police Arizona's population, right?  Pizza delivery chains?  Grocery stores?  Gas stations?

Why not go all the way and implement a steep fine for knowingly providing a good or service to an illegal immigrant?  That way everybody has to show papers for everything, every time, right?  That'll solve your problem!

That's the most egalitarian way to do it, right?

Why go half-ass on the police state fascism here?  Which one of Arizona's "Real Americans" will stand up for "Real Arizonans" and push a law like that?