Immigration II

It appears that the final version of the Arizona law states that race should not be a factor in questioning someone. Of course, is that how the law will really be enforced? Should enforcement be as immigration status is checked at borders; that is, everyone is checked? Megan is right that you may not see so many white people supporting the law any more. But also, what is a person supposed to produce to show he/she is a U.S. citizen? Most people do not have passports. Driver's licenses are easily faked.

Lots of immigrants are here legally and we should welcome them. Many come here for our university system allowing us to cherry-pick the best and brightest from around the world. They play by the rules. Those are the true immigrants. The rest are trespassers. Unless you don't think that states should have the right to limit the number of people coming into their country. Who really believes that?

But bottom line is that I do not see how this is a good law without solving the ID issue. I need to find out what the law actually says about this.

We also need to make sure that those we do invite to stay have the capacity to become part of the culture, which partly means being able to find a job and given tools to learn the language.

Addendum: Frank Rich's column in the Sunday Times, while identifying a troubling amount of racism that has been here all along, does not address this law. 59% of Tea Party members do not believe Obama was born in the U.S. What about the other 41%? What are their reasons for being a member of the Tea Party? It is amazing how many people have jumped so quickly into two camps with the passage of this law. On the other hand, there is a nice article by Doris Meisner in the Washington Post today rebutting myths held about immigration. The link is so long that I cannot read all of it.