Illegal Immigration

At the last minute a Federal Judge has blocked virtually all parts of the new Arizona immigration legislation which was controversial.

I find it a bit odd. For years Federal Law has required that temporary visitors to America, or legal resident aliens, must carry their papers authorizing them to be in the country. Citizens of other countries who are visiting America likewise by Federal law have been required for years to carry proper identification. For some reason the Federal Government has chosen not to enforce these laws which were enacted by our democratic representatives. Is it their intentional choice to not obey Federal Law, or are they under staffed, or are they just incompetent? Intentionally not enforcing the laws of the land undermines the idea of rule-of-law. This is a serious matter.

Now that Arizona has tried to help the Federal Government enforce these existing Federal laws by passing virtually identical State laws, the legislators in Arizona have been painted as racist nazis.

I can see that racial profiling might be a problem, but I lived abroad for almost 20 years. I got used to always carrying my American passport, my alien ID card (green card), my foreign driver's license, and foreign automobile insurance. Sure, I was often treated less well than the natives and citizens. At times the discrimination because I was from America, and even worse from Texas, was absolutely crystal clear. Its all just part of living abroad. If you don't like it, go home.

Of course if you choose to live as an outlaw, sneaking illegally into a country without following their rules and regulations, I can see why you might not want to have any encounters with law enforcement. There are some real problems living underground like this though. If you are young, attractive, and female your legal protections against rape and forced prostitution are greatly reduced. If you work in manual labor such as construction or agricultural harvesting, when you are living in the country illegally, you most certainly will be taken advantage of by racist, greedy employers. You will be underpaid, and you will be asked to perform hazardous or dangerous work that legal workers wouldn't even consider doing.

It is probably good that this entire movement has been slowed down a little. But it certainly is not over. There is overwhelming support among a large majority of Americans for similar legislation in their states. The chance that we will see another mass amnesty of illegal aliens any time in the near future is virtually zero.

The Chamber of Commerce and other business groups are equally determined not to end this equivalent of modern day slavery. It has been real good to them. If these illegal alien construction workers, Wal-Mart employees, and agricultural workers can be kept undocumented then they are afraid of having any contact with the authorities, including whistle blowing. So businesses can get away with paying these people far less, and avoiding silly little annoyances like overtime pay, non-discrimination rules, or OSHA workplace safety rules.

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