By Ken Carroll
Editorial

Listening to the rhetoric, there are several things that are obvious. First, the extremist that hate Mexicans, legal or illegal, are going to continue to hate Mexicans and want them all deported, despite the fact that deporting 12 million illegals is not practical. It is a lot easier to write hate, than it is to come up with a rational solution to deal with the problem.

When I advocate reforming the immigration policy to one that is reasonable and fair, the racist jump on their keyboards and scream that I am advocating the elimination of all laws. I use the example of prohibition, when the government outlawed drinking and selling alcohol. That law not only was unenforceable, but it gave birth to the largest influx of crime in the history of America!

By having a difficult and complex immigration law that too is unenforceable and has created crimes that would not exist if we had a reasonable immigration law. Coyotes would not be profiting from otherwise honest Mexican families.

If immigrants were able to come to America legally, the whole family would come, and the need to send money back to Mexico would be eliminated. Racists on this post paint a picture of herds of Mexicans with criminal records flooding into America waiting for free medical and the opportunity to kill and rape blue-eyed Americans. While there are a small percentage of lawbreakers in the "illegal" community, most illegal immigrants keep a low profile and avoid trouble. They only want to work and send money home to their families.

I personally feel that anyone that is oppressed, or wants to improve their family's chances of prosperity, and wants to legally come to America, should be allowed to do so. I think a quota system is very egotistic and arrogant. The United States isn't overcrowded. Some cities are, but there are miles and miles and miles of open land that could provide a safe and secure home for hard-working people.

If these immigrants were allowed to enter legally, they would be just as responsible for their debts as anyone. They would be able to pay taxes and contribute to society, and their income would stay in America to help the economy.

I am not saying they should be allowed to be citizens the first day they are here, but they should be able to pay taxes from the first day. I grew up in Peoria, Arizona, and 50% of the residents at that time were Hispanic. Most of my classmates and friends were Mexicans whose parents had come from Mexico, some legally, some illegally. It didn't matter. They were good neighbors and good friends, and most of them were hard-working.

The atmosphere in this state has become that people are screaming they hate Mexicans and want them deported. Arizona's Sheriff Joe is on a campaign to arrest as many Mexicans that he can find. Unfortunately, he would rather catch a pickup full of Mexicans on the way to work, than catch a drug-crazed white junkie breaking into our homes to steal our possessions so they could get another fix.