Papersss! Papersss Please!

Quick! Prove you're a citizen of the United States. Whether you're white or brown or green with webbed toes, let's go, smart guy. Prove that you're a citizen. I'll bet you a dollar that like 80 percent of the people in this country would not be able to do that. And I bet you're one of them. And I suggest you get your papers in order. Because the Stasi wants a word with you. Now. Let's talk about a commentor I've just approved. He/she wrote:

I ask this not for the sake of argument, but because I am curious as to why you think it is okay for people to be in this country illegally. Illegally being the key word. Do you appreciate paying for their healthcare and children, and everything else, while you struggle to make ends meet? Would the same courtesies be extended to you if you went to Mexico or any other country? What is your solution to this problem besides a boycott?

Break it down:

I ask this not for the sake of argument, but because I am curious as to why you think it is okay for people to be in this country illegally.

I don't.

Illegally being the key word.

Heard you the first time, sunshine.

Do you appreciate paying for their healthcare and children, and everything else, while you struggle to make ends meet?

This is your first visit here to Ketchup Is A Vegetable, isn't it?

Would the same courtesies be extended to you if you went to Mexico or any other country?

Perhaps not. But the United States of America is supposed to be better than that.

What is your solution to this problem besides a boycott?

I'm not a boycott guy, that was PB's suggestion. Boycotts aren't all that effective. What needs done, Sanchez, is to shut down employers who hire undocumented workers. Take away the work and you take away the jerks. And I don't even think you'd have to ante up the regs to do that; all Uncle Sam would have to do is to start again enforcing what's on the books. We here at Crack Whores for Good Government have never denied that there's a problem. And, like many other of the societal ills that plague these Untied States of America, that ill can be traced back to a core, rotted central nervous system of a problem, that being the sickening prelevance of unwaivering faith in fetid greed, in a puzzling belief that we can only be saved by purely unfettered captialism on steroids. Ronuld Raygun stopped cracking down on employers for hiring undocumented workers because he somehow believed that the market would just do the trick on its own. Guess wha happen? All this law manages to do, Grimy, is to empower—nay, to require—Arizona law enforcement officers to harrass and terrify the majority of brown people in its midst who are in the country legally. It is also a horrible law because of its incredible potential for abuse and mission creep. You don't just think you pass a law suspending requirements on probable cause and just have it apply to Spanish-speakers, do you? You don't think a cop who really wants that bust but doesn't quite have all of his i's dotted isn't going to use this thing to improperly arrest a couple of honkeys, too? Or that this legislation will put a bunch of actually innocent people behind bars because Arizona courts can now deem concerns of "search and seizure" to be quaint? This is a horrible law, it is nothing more nor less than fascism writ large. And you will see confirmation of the horrendous aspect of this legislation, either when it is struck down like Sonny Liston by the Supreme Court, or when some cop has his baton wedged hard against the back of your neck with your temple and cheek eating concrete. Do not think a law like this is just for "them." It can't be.