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Thursday, June 14, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

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W

hen we think about the 
liberal bastions of the 
world, there are several 
countries that tend to come to mind, 
including countries like Norway, 
Sweden and Denmark. It is very 
rare that someone names Ireland, a 
country almost synonymous with 
Catholic values, as a part of a list of 
socially liberal countries. However, 
Ireland has been making leaps 
forward in matters of inclusivity and 
human rights in the past few years. In 
a world where right-wing populism 
seems to be coming from every corner, 
maybe we should look to Ireland as a 
model for our path forward.
On May 25 the Republic of Ireland 
held a referendum on whether to 
repeal the Eighth Amendment to their 
constitution detailing the country’s 
strict restrictions on abortion. The 
Eighth Amendment was added to 
the Irish Constitution in 1983 after a 
referendum vote. This amendment 
was painted as equal protection of 
the right to life for mother and baby 
and prohibited abortion in most 
cases. Some of the few exceptions 
that allowed for abortion under this 
law included danger to the physical 
or mental health of the mother, rape 
and fatal health issues for the fetus. It 
isn’t surprising that a country with an 
over 78 percent Catholic population 
had such strict laws about abortion. It 
is, however, surprising that this same 
country voted with a 66 percent majority 
to repeal the Eighth Amendment and 
subsequent ban on abortion.
This massive step forward in 
women’s rights issues for Ireland is 
less surprising when looking back 

at the last couple of years in Ireland. 
In 2015, Ireland became the first 
country in the world to vote for the 
legalization of same-sex marriage by 
referendum, by 62 percent. Less than 
a month later, Ireland elected Leo 
Varadkar, an openly gay man, as the 
prime minister. Varadkar was also 
Ireland’s youngest prime minister 
in history and half Indian. All this 
progress, followed by last week’s 
decision to lift the ban on abortion, 
makes it clear: Ireland is not being left 
in the past any longer.
Much of this positive change 
comes during a time of overwhelming 
negativity 
in 
the 
world. 
Great 
Britain voted to exit the European 
Union in 2016 by a majority of 52 
percent following a long campaign 
of isolationism and xenophobia. 
Less than a year later, France faced 
an intense election season between 
Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel 
Macron. Though Macron won in 
a landslide with 66 percent of the 
vote, Le Pen still managed to run 
in the primary with an extremist 
conservative 
agenda. 
This 
all 
happening in conjunction with the 
United States’ experiment with right-
wing populists and nationalism with 
the election of Trump.
The world often seems to be 
slipping back in time when it comes to 
seemingly outdated laws and policies. 
At the beginning of May, Iowa 
approved the strictest abortion law in 
the country, making abortion nearly 
impossible once a fetal heartbeat has 
been detected. Meanwhile, on May 29 
the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the 
dispute over a 2015 law from Arkansas 

that made pill-induced abortions 
illegal. These policies come from a 
government led by politicians like 
Vice President Pence, who is known 
for his anti-abortion stance. In 2016 
Pence signed a bill as the governor 
of Indiana that would severely limit 
women’s access to abortion, even 
in cases where the child would be 
born with disabilities. This decision 
was overturned in April by a federal 
appeals court, but still shows us 
exactly what our country’s second-in-
command believes.
Ireland seems to be on an upswing 
right now and is making big strides 
in a short amount of time that will 
hopefully continue. However, it is 
important to remember how quickly 
that can change. Many of us thought 
that the United States might have 
been in a similar place when Barack 
Obama was elected as our first Black 
president or when gay marriage was 
legalized nationally. Unfortunately, 
directly following those few years 
of progress came the election of 
President Trump and a rise in open 
racism and misogyny.
Ireland is not perfect and still has 
a long way to go in issues of equality, 
particularly when it comes to issues 
of race and disability. However, in 
a world that can often feel like it’s 
falling apart, it’s reassuring to know 
that progress is still being made in a 
different corner of the world. 

ETHAN KESSLER | COLUMN

 EMMA CHANG
Editorial Page Editor
EMMA RICHTER
Managing Editor

Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz
Samantha Goldstein
Elena Hubbell
Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram

Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland

Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Alex Satola
Ali Safawi
 Ashley Zhang
Sam Weinberger

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. 
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

ASIF BECHER
Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

 AUDREY GILMOUR| COLUMN

Progress abroad

Audrey Gilmour can be reached at 

audreymg@umich.edu.

A state divided
L

iving in Orange County, 
California, 
one 
is 
constantly 
reminded 
of the paradoxical political 
climate. Here – the county 
Ronald Reagan described as 
the place “where all the good 
Republicans go to die,” the home 
to none other than Richard 
Nixon and the electoral district 
in which Hillary Clinton broke 
a seven decade-long conservative 
streak – conservative ideology 
stands tall. Here in California, the 
state legislature and executive 
branch are controlled exclusively 
by Democrats while the number 
of state-registered Independents 
recently overtook the number of 
state-registered Republicans.
The same partisan dichotomy 
is no less apparent on the issue 
of immigration. Late last year, 
California Gov. Jerry Brown 
signed into law Senate Bill 54, 
transforming 
California 
into 
the country’s most extensive 
“sanctuary 
state.” 
Orange 
County, host to nearly a tenth of 
California’s illegal immigrants, 
reacted by signing onto the 
lawsuit against the state of 
California proposed by President 
Donald Trump’s administration. 
By linking arms with the federal 
government, Orange County has 
fanned the flames of what has 
proved to be an acrimonious 
debate on immigration. 
While California has cleverly 
skirted some technicalities with 
S.B. 54, conservatives are right 
that the law affronts federal 
legitimacy. 
Sacramento’s 
conciliatory approach to illegal 
immigration, however, is in 
the spotlight for all the wrong 
reasons. 
Legal 
defiance 
of 
the 
Trump 
administration’s 
immigration approach should 
be highlighted, instead, for 
what 
it 
reveals: 
troubling 
inadequacy on the part of the 
federal government in search of 
effective immigration policy. 
Generally, 
immigration 
is 
a matter that should be left 
to the federal government. 
Not 
only 
is 
Congress 
constitutionally 
entrusted 
with 
the 
naturalization 
of 
immigrants, but immigration is 
a pivotal component of foreign 
affairs, a domain also entrusted 
to Congress. The reasoning 
is sound: A task as complex 
and nationally extensive as 
immigration would overburden 
the states. 

That said, states do hold 
some discretion over areas of 
immigration law where the 
federal government has yet 
to 
produce 
comprehensive 
policy. 
It’s 
why 
Arizona’s 
2010 
immigration 
law 
had 
provisions that dealt with the 
registration 
of 
noncitizens 
– a matter that had already 
been 
addressed 
by 
federal 
regulations – struck down; yet 
the law saw its components 
that 
addressed 
cooperation 
between 
state 
and 
federal 
officials – a matter outside of 
contemporary federal policy – 
upheld. The reasoning behind 
this is also sound: Federal laws 
hold preeminence over state 
ones, but power must also be 
balanced between state and 
national government, as per 
the U.S. Constitution. 
California’s S.B. 54 does just 
that with respect to illegal 
immigration, 
addressing 
realities on the ground that 
have 
been 
overlooked 
in 
Washington, D.C. As of 2012, 
California housed a quarter of 
the country’s undocumented 
immigrants, 
forcing 
the 
state to address them less 
as 
a 
logistical 
anomaly 
to 
be corrected and more as a 
near-permanent 
contingent 
deserving 
of 
comprehensive 
policy. The sheer number of 
undocumented 
immigrants 
in California, occupants who 
neither receive the intangible 
benefits of legal status nor 
pay respect to the legal path 
to citizenship (though many 
do, contrary to popular belief, 
pay taxes), is an unfortunate 
reality for which the blame 
partly rests on Congress.
Congress, in failing to pass the 
Comprehensive 
Immigration 
Reform Act of 2007, missed 
an opportunity to curtail the 
problem of illegal immigration 
on two fronts. The act would’ve 
cleared a path to citizenship 
for millions of undocumented 
immigrants already living in 
the U.S., eliminating the choice 
between mass deportation and 
continued subversion of the law, 
while also stymieing the flow of 
future illegal immigration via 
tightened border security. 

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