Sunday, June 13, 2010

Arizona Continues Building a Bridge Too Far

I just finished reading an article over at Time, and I found it particularly disturbing. Now that Arizona has passed its draconian immigration law, a law that cannot be enforced without some form of racial profiling (ask yourself who looks like an illegal immigrant, and you will understand the profiling part, and I bet Heidi Klum look-a-likes don't come to the front of your brain), some in the GOP are ready to go for the U.S. Constitution itself. The same person who brought us the immigration bill is now gunning for the children of illegal immigrants who were born here and are U.S. citizens.

The 14th Amendment defines citizenship quite clearly, and though it may piss people off, those children are citizens, period. What I find interesting, is that no one seems to be willing to do the hard work of pushing for a new amendment modifying the qualifications for citizenship. It is also strange that the likely supporters of this type of legislation are the same people who've spent the entire Obama administration screaming for a strict adherence to the Constitution. Funny how that works.

There is no question that we have to deal with illegal immigration, but no one in Congress, regardless of party, wants to touch the subject. That is a major problem. We also have an issue with enforcement, particularly those laws that forbid the hiring of illegal immigrants. We do have a porous border, north and south. But with all of that said, I am sick and tired of these "brown menace" scenarios, and freaked out people jumping about like the chickens of "Chicken Run" in panic mode.

It's almost always low to pick on defenseless children. It's even worse to suggest that we strip away citizenship based on the condition of the citizen's parents.

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