Raising Arizona!

The recently passed Arizona immigration measure, Arizona Senate Bill 1070, has ignited a firestorm of controversy. Opposition from Latino members of Congress to the clergy has decried the bill as tantamount to making racial profiling not only legal, but de facto policy for Arizona police.

Not more than a month ago – on this site we identified and defined what “racial profiling” actually is. First, "racial profiling" is the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a “predictable” manner. Admittedly this is where the argument begins. Predicated upon the characteristics of the crime and the perpetrators who committed the crime is always law enforcement’s first consideration. We believe that if any crime is more prominent in one group of individuals predicated upon the groups shared identity then “racial profiling” cannot exist. (Please see this from just a month ago!)

The Latino members of Congress – or factions as referred to by James Madison – are referring to is the concept of “offender profiling.” Offender profiling has been perceived to be directed most often toward non white individuals. Who said that being politically correct was actually correct?

This is of course a result of a society influenced by government and the special interest groups that have vested interests in whatever they intend or hope to get done. In other words, this is where words ‘CoLliDe (collide)’ and all measures of political correctness come back and begin to haunt those who are so adamant in using them.

Arizona’s decision to advance such a draconian and highly questionable piece of legislation reveals the moral crisis our nation is facing as we confront options on how to best deal with illegal immigration and the millions of families who live and work in our midst,” said Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), in a statement. She warns that, if passed into law, the bill would open the state to a raft of racial profiling and wrongful arrest lawsuits.

Can we please just deal with the problem without adding to it? Never in our collective histories have we seen so much uproar from bleeding hearts of the advocacy groups. Just examine the paragraph above: “…draconian and highly questionable legislation…moral crisis our nation is facing as we confront options on how to deal best” with illegal’s who’ve already broken our laws and continue to do so unabatedly and without due respect to our nation.

And then to warn Arizona’s legislators “...would open the state to a raft of racial profiling and wrongful arrest lawsuits.” Speaking of which we have espoused this from the highest of hill tops – threatening by advocacy groups, special interest organizations, and factions within our own government is but one the very matters that is causing the “moral crisis” in our nation.

“Arizona’s SB 1070 is a no-nonsense, common-sense example of a state acting where the federal government is failing,” says Dustin Carnevale, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). “This legislation is a reaction to the inaction of Washington with regard to border security and immigration enforcement."

It gets worse still inasmuch as Immigration Reform is at issue. As for us it doesn’t seem copasetic whatsoever to be threatening voter turnout at elections, mass rioting in the streets, and not even open to compromise by any of these groups when it comes to true immigration reform. We would argue that the threatening behavior, violence, and complete disregard for the nation’s laws, is not the kind of portrayal one wants to make in the interest of reform.

But the legislation is warranted, say others. While illegal immigration has trailed off recently, high profile cases such as the killing of rancher Robert Krentz have raised public awareness. And, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the state has seen a 42 percent increase in the number of illegal immigrants living there between 2000 and 2009.