The more I read about this issue of the Arizona law, and those who call it racial profiling, the more I scratch my head. If I take what they say about it being racial profiling, then I think we need to throw away all immigration law that pertains to anyone, because our hands are tied and we cannot question anyone ever because we might hurt their feelings and rights.
We have a mess in the US, that is a fact. Border states seem to have a pretty big problem and those of us who have no knowledge of those problems can easily sit back and point fingers and live in our ignorance and continue to not do anything effective. Most US citizens have zero knowledge of the drug problems that are in Mexico and the crime and other economic issues that are driving people into the US.
I think the federal government needs to have clear laws and they need to enforce them, if not, all bets are off. As long as people are treated with respect, I have no issue with law enforcement asking for proof of citizenship. I think I can speak to this because my German grandfather was interned like the Japanese during WWII by the US because he was considered (and later cleared) of being an enemy alien. Chaos does not a strong country make. By not dealing with these issues sooner we now have illegal children who are "essentially" American. We need to come up with a way to plug the hole and to deal with what we have allowed up to this point. We are talking about human lives here.
For those of you who do not know it, there is a border town in our country that US citizens are asked to stay out of due to the problems from Mexico that have spilled over our border. If you do not think that is an issue, then let's put it in your backyard. I am no lawmaker but I know enough to know that other countries do not tolerate what we do and I know we cannot afford to stick out head in the sand much longer. We need to face what we have, deal with it, and fix the problem.
One solution seems simple. Enforce the law about people showing proof of citizenship before they can work in the US. Create a computer system that requires registration of all workers. I know I have to prove it when I change jobs and yes it was pretty annoying, but if I had to do it, so should everyone else. Heavily fine or imprison all those responsible for breaking these laws. I think this would go a long way to solving the problem.
What do you think?