Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Arizona Immigration Reform


There has been a lot of angst as of late over the recent Immigration Laws that went into effect in Arizona. The State of Arizona has taken a lot of abuse by lawmakers, the President and the media over the adoption of the strictest immigration laws in the Country. There have been calls for boycotts of Arizona, including their baseball team. All because a sovereign State has decided that enough is enough.

We are a land of laws, and it is be obedience to those laws that society is protected. I have heard commentators say that the law is centered on hate and bigotry. I would ask a simple question, how? As a Hispanic I see nothing to fear in the Arizona law. That is true, I don’t live in Arizona, but even if I did I would not think that the Gestapo was going to kick in my door and drag me out into the streets in a public display of racism. While I lived in Spain, I was approach repeatedly by the Guardia Civil and the Police requesting to see my papers. The Police and the Guardia Civil roam the train stations and bus stations asking to see everyone’s papers that don’t look like they are from Spain. I didn’t hold up a sign saying that the Police were racist and that it was unfair. I didn’t go to a Government Building and smear a Swastika in refried beans on the wall in defiant opposition to a social wrong. Spain had laws, and they expected them to be adhered to, and I respected that. Why then are we hearing so much opposition to the enforcement of our Immigration Laws in the United States?

It is interesting though that the President would say that the Law in Arizona is ill-conceived and wrong because it is requiring people living in their State to be Legal Immigrants, but at the same time requiring that all U.S. Citizens purchase health insurance or be fined or face imprisonment is justified. Since when do we as a Nation extend greater courtesy to non-citizens than to those who are Citizens of this great Nation? The Police can’t ask to see documentation, but the IRS can demand to see proof of insurance, it boggles the mind in its absurdity.

The same people who deride the Tea Party demonstrators as bigots and hate mongers, and out of control are those who say that the Latino demonstrators are within their full rights as, well I was going to say Citizens, but they aren’t so I will say Central Americans or South Americans wherever they originally called home. I’ve seen more hate and vitriol come out of the Arizona protests than I recall seeing in the Tea Party protests. They’ve made piƱatas with the picture of the Gov. of Arizona, and that isn’t violent according to the media, wait, it’s not that the media doesn’t say that it isn’t violent they just ignore it and then it is ok. The double standard used by the Democrats and the media is sickening. We as Patriotic Americans are told that we are committing insurrection and treason for coming out against Healthcare reform, but you can protest immigration reform and that is ok.

It makes me ashamed to be Hispanic as I see these people taking to the streets in angry protest around the Country. I for one support the law, and if it were to be adopted here in Utah, I would not feel threatened by it. I don’t think that I would be stopped any more frequently than I already do. As a brown person you get used to certain attention paid to you when out and about. I recently heard a comment by Obama in which he indicated that Hispanics, or as he put it, Latino Males can’t leave their homes without facing danger every day. I was unaware that I was in danger so often, thank goodness that I always have a police detail on me when I am driving around town. I am being facetious of course; I don’t always have a police detail, only some of the time.

What I am trying to say is that I support Arizona in defending and protecting its Citizens; it is doing more to do so than the Federal Government. I will wear my Arizona Diamondbacks hat and jersey in support of Arizona, and I will pray for cool heads and even tempers as the debate goes on.