The new Arizona immigration law features as policy the rhetoric of the aristocracy and plutocracy. Never, ever look anywhere but down the social scale for the source of problems. It must be the fault of the poor and disrespected that Arizona has an illegal immigration problem - they talk wrong and do dirty jobs. It certainly shouldn't be a newsflash that this country has a problem with illegal immigration and for my readers also not one that I am a foe of illegal immigration because I do not like what it does to the job market and I strongly disapprove of the creation of an illegal serf class.
People immigrate to this country for a couple reasons, economic improvement, escaping repression (except maybe AZ), family. The biggest driver of illegal immigration is financial improvement and that comes with having a .... wait for it ... job. That job is not provided by the socially down scale individuals, nope not even a little bit. Those jobs start with the middle class small business owner and move up to the stratosphere of monster companies. A hell of a lot of people have made a hell of a lot of money off the backs of the despised illegals and those folks are the ones being ignored.
The farmer will, with some justification, state that he cannot compete without access to cheap labor. That is true, but only when the competition is also using access to cheap labor. He will protest that he can't hire people to do the work, and that is certainly true at what passes for field wages. Maybe you feel sympathy for the American farmer ... do you have a bit more of a problem with the companies that support true wealth like, oh say, former OR Senator Gordon Smith who could afford to pay $100K for a couple golf clubs while employing illegally at his pea plant?
This problem was not created down the social ladder it was created by the masters of the social ladder. It is not in their benefit to have attention paid to their union busting, wage depression, ecological devastation, or their disregard for the safety of labor, it is in their interest to create a scapegoat for their destructive behavior - especially a brown skinned scapegoat.
By the way, Arizona my family has been here for a really long time, some since New York was New Amsterdam and some since the Revolution and plenty on the winning side of the Civil War. There's an issue, in the winter I get somewhere in the area of sorta pale but once the sun is out I am ... dark and dress in ... work clothes ... and my grey eyes are behind shades. Thinking I'm Hispanic in descent would be understandable (if totally erroneous) and I don't carry "papers" other than my OR license. Stopping me for something other than a legal violation would bring a rather serious reaction. I do not propose to be interfered with by anyone short of my having done something meriting interference - like a legal violation and suspicion of my nativity won't do. Now if you're one of those red-headed pale illegal Irish you probably won't have a problem with those Arizona coppers.
It is a time tried strategy for the ruling class to create strife and discord amongst those being oppressed. Why act surprised?
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