Arizona, Immigration, and Racism
First, let me point something out. Preventing illegal immigration is not racism. We allow very few Europeans to immigrate to the US, not counting work visas and marriages. Honestly, I think the number of permits given to most of the Eastern European countries are less that 50 people a year, or some similarly abusurly low number. I was told 13 from the Czech Republic.
Anyway, what we are dealing with here is illegal immigration. In case anyone has forgotten what illegal means, it means not-legal. As in you can get arrested for it, and it is against the law. As in we, as a country, as a democratic people, have passed laws which make it unlawful to enter this country, especially with an intent to reside here, without properly applying to do so. Becoming a citizen of the US is difficult for anyone, including family members of mine coming over from the UK.
Allowing illegal immigration supposes that becoming a member of US society should be difficult for everyone except the illegal immigrants (in a legal sense). That is a totally nonsensical point of view. But it is what you hear every day in the media: Arizona is evil and bad and backwards, because they passed a bill which allows them to enforce laws passed by the Federal Government. The horror! What the bill does is allow police officers to check if someone is an illegal immigrant. Err.. shocking. It also allows a police officer to pull someone over on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant - this part I do disagree with, because what the hell is a suspicion of being in illegal immigrant while driving? However, since you can also get pulled over for suspicion of not wearing a seatbelt, (because officers actually have eye implants developed from eagles... yeah...) this does not seem to be outside of the range of abuse we already grant the police.
What amazes me is the massive spin the media is putting on this one, the usual story looking something like this:
"Andres Dominguez and sister Andrea Palacios (R), residents of Phoenix help carry out the sold family items out of their apartment. The family sold everything they owned in order to leave Arizona without being detected and fearing the passage of the new SB 1070 law. The family of ten is moving to Chicago were they feel they will not be targeted because of the color of their skin."
As I have already written, this is law is not the best way to deal with illegal immigration, but illegal immigration is an issue that needs to be deal with, and it is not in and of itself racism, as this article and most other ones I have read seem to imply. If you want to change "illegal immigration" change the federal laws which are on the books, dont get pissed at Arizona because it actually decided to enforce those laws.
Anyway, what we are dealing with here is illegal immigration. In case anyone has forgotten what illegal means, it means not-legal. As in you can get arrested for it, and it is against the law. As in we, as a country, as a democratic people, have passed laws which make it unlawful to enter this country, especially with an intent to reside here, without properly applying to do so. Becoming a citizen of the US is difficult for anyone, including family members of mine coming over from the UK.
Allowing illegal immigration supposes that becoming a member of US society should be difficult for everyone except the illegal immigrants (in a legal sense). That is a totally nonsensical point of view. But it is what you hear every day in the media: Arizona is evil and bad and backwards, because they passed a bill which allows them to enforce laws passed by the Federal Government. The horror! What the bill does is allow police officers to check if someone is an illegal immigrant. Err.. shocking. It also allows a police officer to pull someone over on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant - this part I do disagree with, because what the hell is a suspicion of being in illegal immigrant while driving? However, since you can also get pulled over for suspicion of not wearing a seatbelt, (because officers actually have eye implants developed from eagles... yeah...) this does not seem to be outside of the range of abuse we already grant the police.
What amazes me is the massive spin the media is putting on this one, the usual story looking something like this:
As I have already written, this is law is not the best way to deal with illegal immigration, but illegal immigration is an issue that needs to be deal with, and it is not in and of itself racism, as this article and most other ones I have read seem to imply. If you want to change "illegal immigration" change the federal laws which are on the books, dont get pissed at Arizona because it actually decided to enforce those laws.
Comments
Post a Comment