My heart is heavy for a number of different reasons. I try to not obsess about the violence that some of my friends have endured, the violence that my family in Mexico is enduring (even as I write) and the impending violence that my family in Arizona might experience due to what allows legalized racial profiling.
I can’t do much for what has happened, for what is happening but… I should at least share my opinion for what might happen. Back home (in a Northern state), the number of undocumented immigrants from Poland nearly equaled the number of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other Latin-American countries. Undocumented people sometimes have quite a bit of money, some don’t; some come as students and dress like professionals and some don’t; some speak perfect English and some U.S. citizens don’t even speak English so… I can understand when the governor of Arizona says that she cannot tell us what an undocumented person looks like – how can anyone?
My brother up North went out and snapped a shot of the signs I remembered as a teen. The village of Park Forest actively posts signs that mandate no racial profiling but unfortunately, it still happens. My brothers have experienced and have complained when stopped because they “looked suspicious” (they received apologies). Now imagine what will happen in Arizona where profiling will be allowed by local law enforcement. Let me repeat LOCAL law enforcement.
If FEDERAL law enforcement sometimes has difficulty with complaints from those they stop and they have much, much, much more training than local yokels, I can only imagine the problems that will be encountered. If *I* were one of Arpaio’s crew, I would say of , “How dare you add so much more responsibility to my job description and not give me the training to deal with it, not give me the same money as a federal employee since I will be doing what they do, and not give me a prepared union and legal representation for complaints that WILL be filed!”
I am confident that this new Arizona immigration law will be repealed – at minimum because of the unconstitutionality of supplanting federal responsibilities and that is not even considering the door it opens to violate the civil rights of lawful residents.
I just had to say that – now back to worrying about my family (those in Mexico, in Arizona and back home).
Que Fregados 
Whether it’s repealed or not racial profiling in that state still exists as in the Houston area .
Unfortunately, you are right. Sad, sad, sad.
When will we be seeing a post related to how uncivil the protests have been in Arizona against the new immigration enforcement law? The Tea Party protests have not reulted in one arrest of a Tea Partier that I am aware of. Can the anti-immigration law folks in Arizona say the same?
Guess we will see it when 1) someone agrees & 2) someone decides to write about it … but it probably won’t be this blog. You are free to comment all you want, though.
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