Some of the biggest uproar in the war of words between Democrats and Republicans came to an exploding crescendo last Friday when Arizona governor Jan Brewer (Republican) stood in front of a packed news conference to announce the new law. The new laws require police to get identification from the people that they stop showing that they are here in this country legally. The law, which is named the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act gives police the power and authority to arrest and detain those without proof of residency or citizenship.
Many civil rights watchdog groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and others began to vehemently protest the law, calling it racist and unconstitutional. Many lawmakers see this not as a fight against Mexican illegal immigration but as a racially motivated hate law that discriminates against any person that looks brown or foreign. They are asking, How will the police be able to tell if a person is illegal or not? The answer is obvious and that is that the law encourages racial profiling. Opponents of the law, and there are many of them across the country and not just liberals, claim that the law gives officers permission to detain, arrest, harass, and in some cases, abuse people of a different color simply for being different.
Certainly the Obama Administration, along with moderate and leftist Democrats in both the House and Senate have been vocal in their opposition to this legislation. The President came out almost immediately denouncing the law and saying that it will hurt their current proposed immigration legislation, which proposes to give general amnesty to illegal immigrants that have been in the United States for long periods of time. Mexican illegal immigration is certainly a problem but not one that will be solved by racial profiling but rather by tougher border control.
The issues of Mexican illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border are of staggering proportions. People in poverty-stricken countries like Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador have been crossing the border illegally for many years. Border patrols have been beefed up by Homeland Security but the border is such a vast area that it cannot be patrolled effectively at all times.
Another big problem is that American companies are hiring illegal immigrants now more than ever. These companies cannot find legal American workers who are not willing to do the type of difficult jobs that the immigrants will do gladly. Mexican illegal immigration accounts for many of the workers that work the agricultural fields of California and New Mexico. These people work long hours for very little money under extremely tough conditions.
The actual solution to Mexican illegal immigration does not belong in the hands of a few police officers. The solution needs to come from an understanding between the United States and Mexico itself. Until poverty levels in Mexico are controlled, people will always want to cross the border and build a better life for themselves and for their families. It is only natural to want to do so.
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