The following is in response to “Alabama immigration law impractical, unethical” in the Oct. 11 edition of The Argonaut.
It seems to me Max Bartlett hasn’t thought through his arguments about the Alabama immigration law and the Texas Dream Act. One of the few classes of people who can still be fugitives from justice and still pull on people’s heartstrings is that of illegal aliens (I’m sorry, I refuse to call them immigrants as long as they are not part of the proper process).
The Alabama and Arizona laws require the police to ascertain the resident status of people who are being detained or stopped, right? When the police stop or detain a person, it means they’ve likely been engaging in some illegal activity that has nothing to do with immigration. If the person cannot speak English well, don’t you think this might be a good reason to check residency status? That is profiling, but based on English-mastery, not race or skin color. Since these laws seem to be cropping up in states that are closer to Mexico, they are labeled as racist.
If an illegal alien is paying taxes, good for him for filing taxes, but doesn’t that mean he is using someone else’s identity? That’s a crime not involving immigration status. If all those who are here stealing the job a citizen could be doing (whether by stealing an identity, being paid under the table, or whatever the method) were not here, there would be no children of illegal immigrants that needed the Dream Act. So discussing how great the Dream Act is without addressing the theft of American jobs is simply being dishonest.
-Joel Gibler, Genesee resident