statueofliberty.jpgLatina Lista spotlights an op-ed from the chief of police in Mesa, AZ:

So, it must be blasphemy to the ears of everyone mentioned when Mesa, Arizona’s police chief, George Gascón, recently wrote a piece for the local newspaper saying that all these critics fanning the flames of anti-immigrant feelings are as full of hot air as the desert.

I often hear talk about the scourge of crimes by immigrants who are here illegally. In fact, I have heard how unauthorized immigrants are responsible for as much as 90 percent of the serious crime in Mesa.

The problem with this assertion is that it is not supported by the facts.

From there on, Chief Gascon compares the facts of the arguments to the accusations, guess which side always wins?

But, don’t let a pesky thing like facts and numbers stop you, eh? 

Think of America’s greatest historical shames. Most have involved the singling out of groups of people for abuse. Name a distinguishing feature — skin color, religion, nationality, language — and it’s likely that people here have suffered unjustly for it, either through the freelance hatred of citizens or as a matter of official government policy.

We are heading down this road again. The country needs to have a working immigration policy, one that corresponds to economic realities and is based on good sense and fairness. But it doesn’t. It has federal inertia and a rising immigrant tide, and a national mood of frustration and anxiety that is slipping, as it has so many times before, into hatred and fear. Hostility for illegal immigrants falls disproportionately on an entire population of people, documented or not, who speak Spanish and are working-class or poor. By blinding the country to solutions, it has harmed us all.

You think this isn’t being felt by legal immigrants, too? Think again.  Are we a nation that will continue to welcome immigrants yearning to breathe free — or are we now only welcoming the ones that are the “right” color?  And what does it say about us?  Following the requirements of the law is important — both in terms of immigration laws and with regard to antidiscrimination.  What does it say about the Bush Administration that they choose to strenuously enforce one while systematically undermining and gutting the part of the DOJ that is meant to enforce the other?

As Douglas Brinkley said, “Too often in the United States we forget that “inaction” can be a policy initiative.” 

(Photo via cheese roc.)

Related posts:

  1. Joe Wilson: Both Lying and Stupid; Immigrants Buying Insurance Makes Sense
  2. GRITtv Live: Is Immigration Reform Dead?
  3. Joe Scarborough & Peggy Noonan: Americans Secretly Yearning for Republican-Controlled Congress
  4. Free Speech in Rhode Island? Gotta Register
  5. 21st Century Hate