because crossing a border so you can get a job and feed your family is exctly like, oh, say, planting a car bomb in the middle of Times Square
Part of the problem is that illegal immigrants cross the border for many reasons. Crossing for employment reasons, economic opportunity, and the like certainly doesn't deserve to be labeled as terrorism.
But at the same time, a subset of people cross the border for more sinister reasons. I've heard Phoenix described as the Kidnapping Capital of America. Mexican organized crime rings cross the border and kidnap people for ransom. I'm not sure that qualifies as terrorism, either, at least not using a strict definition. But it's legitimate to take very strong action against people that do that.
But even assuming for the sake of argument that the Arizona law will accomplish anything on that (and I'm not convinced it would), the downsides are far greater. They've been raised repeatedly around here, so I won't go into detail. I'll just mention the potential for racial profiling and the authority of any citizen to sue on the grounds of insufficiently aggressive enforcement.
So ultimately, I go in the category of "something needs to be done." I'll let others argue over where it belings in the priority list. But the Arizona law is not the way to go.
I wanted to point out something similar to what Fred said. People in Arizona don't support this law because they're all just straight-up racist dummies; they feel genuinely under attack by crimes attributed to Mexican drug lords and others profiting from illegal border crossing.
That is just heartbreaking, msbelle.
It seems to me that a better long-term solution is to put the coyotes out of business by regularizing immigration enough that there's much less incentive to use their services, such as a guest-worker program.
Yeah, AZ is for sure treating the symptom, not the overall problem.
But at the same time, a subset of people cross the border for more sinister reasons. I've heard Phoenix described as the Kidnapping Capital of America. Mexican organized crime rings cross the border and kidnap people for ransom.
I think there's a difference between illegal border crossing and illegal immigration - to me, "immigration" implies that the goal is settlement in the US, not crossing the border to commit a crime and then head straight back to Mexico.
It's kind of what they do.
I don't know why my brother wants in the statehouse so badly.
He'd be good at it, I suppose, but literally banging his head against a wall would save postage.ETA: What Jessica said...I don't think immigration= in the wind, on the lam, whatever.
Those people are probably not going to stop anything because law enforcement probably doesn't scare them very much.
I think there's a difference between illegal border crossing and illegal immigration - to me, "immigration" implies that the goal is settlement in the US, not crossing the border to commit a crime and then head straight back to Mexico.
Arizona is looking for a way to discourage the former, even though it equally affects the latter. They can't do anything about federal immigration laws.
