It's important to note that most Americans are pro-immigration. They simply want government to enforce its immigration laws. Sadly, both political parties are paralyzed because they covet the Latino vote - and that a clampdown on illegal immigration will cause the party responsible to lose the Latino vote for a generation. Arizona is on the front line - and can not afford to pay the price for Federal government inaction. So it made the right move - pass a very popular law (for Anglos) and unpopular law (for Latinos) which forces the Federal political infrastructure to take notice of a major problem.
Before people criticize Arizonans for passing this law, they should examine Mexico's treatment of illegal immigrants at its own Southern border. If they did, Arizona's actions seem quite tame. If one looks at Mexico as two regions, North and South, one would see that the South is under control of the central government, and prospers because of remittances sent from its citizens living in the USA. In Mexico's North, the narcotics "industry" rules - and Mexico's leadership also prospers because of this. Illegal drugs are shipped to the USA, and dollars are repatriated to Mexico. The Mexican drug industry has diversified, and has now gone into the business of transporting illegal immigrants into the USA - with the tacit approval of the Mexican government.
Should Arizona pay for the Federal government's irresponsibility - NO! But in an ideal world, only the US Federal government would need to take actions regarding immigration policy. Sadly, this is not an ideal world. I think the result of Arizona's law will cause other states to take similar actions, causing the immigration battle to go to the Supreme Court of the USA.
Most of the illegal immigrants are here because they want to work. Much of this work is that which native Americans don't want to do. And we prosper because of these immigrants. But if we shut off the pipeline for these immigrants, we'll see wages go up - as happened down South. (A slaughterhouse was raided, and about 400+ illegal immigrants were rounded up. As a result, wages in the area went up, and Walmart increased its hourly wage by $2.00+ per hour due to a labor shortage.)
These illegal immigrants (and I must stress that they have no right to be here) are pawns in a bigger game - Big business wants labor who is underpaid and who will not fight for safe, healthy, well paid work. Elected officials want votes, but are afraid to alienate any important political bloc. The general public simply wants to be safe in their homes, safe on their property, and safe in their community. And the illegal immigrant simply wants to work hard and take care of his/her family. How will this mess get sorted out? I'm not sure, but forcing the Federal government's hand is a good start - even though it turns innocent people into pawns. Hopefully, we'll end up with a rational immigration policy, where more legal immigration will be authorized for law abiding people, where the value of one's labor is a factor in deciding who can come here, and where government again works for the people to make the hard decisions that we ask it to make....
