IMMIGRATION LAW

Now, I have a chance to FINALLY comment on this. This will be my official sounding board on this topic.

The Senate Bill in Arizona is absolutely ludicrous. This is the same state that barely started celebrating the King Holiday, the same state where a man walked around openly armed at a Presidential rally, the same state where....a man was threatening to take out the President, and the same state where that obnoxious sheriff takes pride in demeaning inmates (and I dare say turning them into worse criminals) than trying to at least rehabilitate them. Needless to say: Arizona has some serious explaining to do.

Okay, I have a couple of questions/arguments and of course statements.

Now, I pride myself on growing up along the border. My Dad was in the military, and I grew up part of my life in Northern California (Monterey), and spent my teenage years in El Paso, Texas where the population is about 95% Hispanic. Across the border is Juarez, Mexico, currently, one of (if not the number 1) deadliest cities in the world. I use this as my disclaimer of saying that I've seen the immigration debate in motion long before it exploded into the headlines.

Now, the main part of this law that really bugs me is that law enforcement officials can stop those who 'look' illegal, and prompt them to show documents, proof of legal residency, etc, etc. What about those Mexican-Americans whose families have been here since the days of General Santa Anna? What about the illegal families who have had their children here legally? Another facet of the law that bothers me is that the law is proposing sending the families home..with their children who were born here. Now, if a child is born here, regardless of who their parents are...doesn't that make them an American citizen?

The really bad implications of this: legal racial profiling. It's not right, and it's not okay. Being pulled over because of one's skin color and demanding documentation is not a way to resolve the 'immigration issue'. This also opens the state of Arizona to a lot of lawsuits. Currently, the government is exploring this option. This new law screams reform at the federal level. From doing a bit of research on current immigration policies, the current immigration process is both costly, and time consuming. It's not as easy as 'avoiding taxes' as some would like to suggest, and coming to America, the land of opportunity is not a walk in the park. The same supporters of this law who say that 'illegals are coming over here doing the work that Americans should be doing', also benefit from the labor of the 'illegal' people. And they are lying when they say that Americans would gladly take $75.00/day to do some back breaking work. I would safely say, an American worker would ask for $150.00 easily, and dare the company to offer anything less. I would suggest, there are a lot more underlying reasons as to why people are coming over here and staying illegal than avoiding paying taxes. Separating families is just wrong. If a child is born over here, why penalize that child? The family came over here to seek out opportunity that they could not receive in their home countries. In Mexico right now, we all know that the war on drugs is not a war...the cartels have won and continue to win, as most of the country is bathed in fear, intimidation and blood. Again, this all points back to our federal government.

The one good thing that came out of this law, is that it exposed the inefficiency of the current law, and the lack of attention that the federal government is paying to such an explosive issue. It can be speculated that maybe this is why Gov. Brewer brewed this law up in her pot; to bring attention to it, and search for some resolution. It is hard for me to believe that in a state with as strong of a Hispanic population that Arizona has, that the governor and her team did not anticipate this type of backlash.

Now, my question: what about the political power of the Hispanics in Arizona? Again, I speculated that maybe Gov. Brewer brewed this law for the purpose of bringing attention to the issue of immigration in Arizona. But, was she really that arrogant to think that the political powers of the Hispanic people in Arizona aren't that strong? She, and other constituents who voted for this law will see in November. At this point, it's up to those opponents of this law to flex their political muscles. I just took a class on this very issue, and I hold the opinion that the old vanguard of political elitists are losing their political power, and this is evidenced by a power shift that is changing to a different demographic.

In reading a recent article, there was a line in the article that read that similar legislation may be in the works for other states. I don't remember all of them, but Texas stood out. Any politician in Texas who even thinks of supporting such a law would be committing political suicide. The state of Texas has the largest population of Hispanics (California may outnumber Texas by a slight margin) in the nation; it would not behoove any politician to even take a conservative version of this law into consideration. As it is, Texas is in the midst of having their gubernatorial races, and when asked about the law, both candidates shied away from stating their positions. Rick Perry, stick to shooting coyotes! LOL.

This is all I have to say about this issue. I'm neither qualified or disqualified for speaking about it..but I CAN give my opinion. What do you think world?

Signing off, but not signing out,

MissDeeDee