I live in a border state and I have lived in Mexico. I have no prejudices against Hispanic Americans. I have no prejudice against Mexicans although if I here the word "manana" again, I may slap the person who said it. However, I understand the problems that come with living along the border. As well, I understand why Mexicans come over to the US. That being said, I have real problems Arizona's law. And here is why.
The Arizona laws says that if police have a reason to believe that the person is not an American citizen they can ask for proof of citizenship. How the hell do they do that? By the color of someone's skin?
If you pull over a white person, how do you know that they are an American citizen? By their Arizona accent? I mean white people come from all kinds of countries like Canada, as well as various European countries. So if you don't talk like an Arizonan, does that mean you have to prove your an American citizen?
If you pull over a black person, how do you know that they are an American citizen? By their Arizona accent? Black people come from all parts of the world. So if you don't talk like an Arizonan, does that mean you have to prove your an American citizen?
If you pull over an asian person, how do you know that they are an American citizen? By their Arizona accent? Asian people come from all parts of the world. So if you don't talk like an Arizonan, does that mean you have to prove your an American citizen?
If you pull over a Muslim, how do you know that they are an American citizen? By their Arizona accent? Muslims people come from all parts of the world. So if you don't talk like an Arizonan, does that mean you have to prove your an American citizen?
If you pull over a Jew, how do you know that they are an American citizen? By their Arizona accent? Jewish people come from all parts of the world. So if you don't talk like an Arizonan, does that mean you have to prove your an American citizen?
The only way to enforce Arizona's law WITHOUT discrimination, is to force every person that the cops come into contact with to prove that they are an American citizen. If you don't, you are discriminating and the last time I looked, that was against the FEDERAL law which the SCOTUS has ruled supercedes states laws.
That means EVERYONE in Arizona better be walking around with either their birth certificate or passport. In essence, Arizona wants to emulate Nazi Germany where EVERYONE had to prove they were German citizens.
The real worrisome part of this is that some people think this is a good thing and want to copy it. Jeez, give me a break. After all, this is not Europe and it's not the 1930's.
And unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. Today, I read the following gem on Yahoo News.
Author of Arizona immigration law wants to end birthright citizenship
The author of Arizona's immigration law, state Sen. Russell Pearce, told constituents he wants to pass another measure to invalidate citizenship granted to the children of illegal aliens.
Pearce wrote that he plans to "push for an Arizona bill that would refuse to accept or issue a birth certificate that recognizes citizenship to those born to illegal aliens, unless one parent is a citizen," in an email obtained by Phoenix CBS affiliate KPHO.
Pearce also forwarded an email from another correspondent expanding on the proposal — which he later told KPHO he didn't agree with. "If we are going to have an effect on the anchor baby racket, we need to target the mother. Call it sexist, but that's the way nature made it. Men don't drop anchor babies, illegal alien mothers do," the email said.
Pearce did tell the CBS affiliate, however, that he didn't see anything wrong with using the term "anchor baby" to refer to natural-born U.S. citizens.
How rascist can you get? I've got an idea. Let's take away American citizenship for admittedly ignorant and stupid people. If we did that, our country's landscape would definitely take a different shape and our political system wouldn't be so tied up in BS.