CLARO QUE NO

Of course not. Arizona, a very politically-odd state, is not going to get the “immigration problem” solved by its new ham-handed legislation, which now awaits the Governor’s signature to go into law. It will get signed, and then will immediately be challenged by any number of civil rights groups for what will likely be another long court mess. Fun in the sun!

A summary: the new law will require all U.S. aliens to carry their registration papers on their person at all times, and mandates police to question any person they suspect might be in the country illegally. HA HA! GOOD LUCK WITH THAT, ARIZONA! A 2008 United States Census tells me that 33% of your legal residents are of Hispanic extraction, about the same number do not speak English as their primary language, and SURPRISE SURPRISE, Arizona has the nation’s fastest-growing Hispanic population. Let’s not pretend this law is about suspected Arab terrorists or intolerably-hip French youth who have outstayed their college visas. It’s about MEXICANS, where the word “Mexicans” is used as a slur.

Oh, I can hear it. Rep. Whitey McDesert, when safely away from a media outlet microphone: “DAD GUM MEXICANS! BREEDIN’ LIKE UN CONEJO! TAKIN’ AWAY ALL OUR GOOD ‘MERICAN JOBS LIKE LAWN MOWIN’ AND TOILET CLEANIN’ AND LIFTIN’ HEAVY CRAP! WE GOTTA DO SUMPTHIN’ ABOUT IT!” No surprise – in tough economic times especially, the “damn foreigner” is to blame and gets the first shove out the door. And with Mexico’s violent out-of-control drug cartels sliming their way into Arizona, people are freakin’.

But get real, Arizona. It’s not going to work, and you’ve just wasted everyone’s time here and you look even more obnoxiously racist that you already were perceived to be. Why this law cannot work, because apparently you need someone from “Diarrhea Island” to tell you, you dumbasses:

1. If you require all aliens to carry their documentation, expect a surge in reasonably-priced and beautifully-forged papers. Tech-friendly capitalists will always be one step ahead of any anti-forgery measures the government might build in.

2. If you require police to question anyone who may LOOK like they are an alien, i.e., A MEXICAN, then all U.S. residents or legal aliens with any kind of Hispanic attributes had better make DAMN sure they have their proof with them at all times as well. This seems just a tad, oh, HITLER-ISH, hmm? What’s next – tattooing legal Hispanics with a smiling cactus and the illegals with a sad-faced burro?

3. Your police are not trained for this, but you are going to have to spend the money to try, Arizona. You are also going to now magically find massive amounts of government funds to pay for more police, more jails, more investigators, more lawyers, more everything that you cannot possibly provide to deal with the amount of CRAP you just bought your system. I have this sneaking suspicion that might be an issue with your constituents. Passing laws without the money built in to fund the reality of them – it’s a classic government fail.

4. The new law also re-states the federal position already in place against those who hire, transport, or hide illegal aliens. Arizona hasn’t been able to enforce that adequately yet; why think adding even more on will make it happen, when the system will be bursting at the seams?

Some “hello” moments: People in desperately-poor countries will always try to survive any way they can, at nearly any cost. People in not-so-poor countries will spit upon them in public and hire them in private, because people like to save money and Whitey McDesert’s kin don’t want to work those crappy MEXICAN jobs anyway, right? And the drug dudes? Supply and demand, baby, supply and demand. We make America their dream, too, don’t we?

There are so many larger issues at work here, which makes us take a hard look at both the physical and Constitutional nature of America. Who are we? Well, we are a nation that borders other nations with an invisible line in the dirt. We are also a nation who claims inclusion and tolerance and diversity as things to cherish and uphold. We are also not able to take on the problems of the world and solve them all, either. There are realities to what we are, what we are not, and what we can be without becoming an entirely different country. We must be very, very wary when the legislature and the judiciary and police are given the power to close ranks on a racial group, no matter what reasons are given for such actions.

This famous quote, from Pastor Martin Niemöller, should sit on every desk of every American lawmaker, and each should study it carefully before proceeding with their decisions that affect us, and the world.

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."