Derik Schneider on Google+

The New Democrat on Facebook 

The New Democrat on Twitter 

This post was originally posted at FRS FreeStates on Blogger

The Arizona immigration bill is all the evidence needed to conclude that it’s time for  comprehensive immigration reform in America. As President Obama has said, failure of Washington to act will lead to misguided legislation meant to deal with the immigration.   Yesterday, a reporter asked Arizona Governor Jan Brewer what an Illegal Immigrant look like.  She replied that she doesn’t know.  Under the Arizona immigration bill, law enforcement personnel will be able to use race and skin color as factors in deciding whether someone is an illegal immigrant.

The Arizona immigration bill provides  no standard for the appearance of an illegal immigrant.   An Arizona law  officer could walk to up to a group speaking a language other than English and assume that they’re in America illegally. I hope that Arizona law officers have better judgement then that, but it could happen.

Arizona and the whole American Southwest have a right to be angry about the illegal immigration problem there. They are in a border war  against criminals there who bring  weapons and narcotics across our border.  They’re right to be angry at Washington for its failure to deal with the problem.  Congress has been debating immigration reform for 5 years now and has failed to pass  a bill.

The overwhelming number of immigrants to America are law-biding, hard-working people who come looking for a better life for themselves and their families.  They want to become Americans.    The Arizona Immigration bill, with its racial profiling aspect, is a serious impediment to there hopes and dreams.   The good news is that it will never become law because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S.  Constitution and will be overturned by the courts.