Mexican President Felipe Calderon spoke before a joint session of Congress Thursday and received resounding applause after condemning Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

Huffington Post

This is truly disturbing. Calderon is a foreign leader who presides over one of the most corrupt governments on the planet, a government with a truly abysmal human rights record, especially as it applies to illegal immigration. This man has the unmitigated gall to condemn the Arizona anti-illegal-immigration law, and the United States Congress gives him a standing ovation. Absolutely sickening!

I know there’s no hope for the far left, but I pray that moderate liberals will wake up from their blinded stupor and recognize that this isn’t a racial issue. Illegal immigration, like everything else in 21st Century America, is an economic issue. Not only does it place a heavy burden on already struggling state economies, but it also adds to the severe unemployment crisis and serves to further reduce the average pay for American workers. It is an integral part of the corporatist movement to eliminate the American middle class.

The corporatists have already managed to concentrate more wealth in the upper 1 percent than in the bottom 90 percent of Americans. They’ve driven CEO salaries from a reasonable 24-to-1 in 1965 to hundreds of times what their average employee is paid. They’ve driven real unemployment to over 17 percent and sent so many jobs overseas that the past decade netted ZERO job growth for our Country — that’s the same economy that produced no less than 20 percent job growth each decade going back to 1940. They’ve all but completely destroyed the unions, and they’ve elevated a bunch of professional gamblers (aka Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers) who produce nothing to the pinnacle of American success. So skewed is this trend that the financial sector recently amassed fully 40 percent of overall corporate profits

Wake up America! Concentration of wealth at the very top plus an influx of people willing to work for low wages equals NO MORE MIDDLE CLASS! This is a squeeze play, one that’s already impacted millions of Americans and threatens to squeeze our children out of their future. The frog is in the kettle, and that frog is the American middle class.

Of course we should all be used to the corporatist desire to return to the days of the robber barons, but when it comes to the dilution of the American workforce and the loss in wages, they’ve recruited an army of unwitting accomplices. It is a sad stroke of irony, that in their haste to run to the aid of the disadvantaged, liberals across the nation have bought into the false racism indictment of anti-illegal-immigration, and are inadvertently helping America’s elite. The corporatists own the Congress, control the Obama administration from the inside, and now they have the left turning up the heat on their own demise.

You couldn’t write a more twisted plot.

What does an illegal immigrant look like?

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who just signed SB 1070 into law last Friday–which allows law enforcement to stop and demand ID of anyone they have “reasonable suspicion” is illegal–has no idea. And yet, isn’t that the premise of this law? That you have to know what “illegal” looks like?

Diana Nguyen and Jen Wang are the creators of DISGRASIAN.com

So much hyperbole and so little substance. I’m a left-of-center moderate, who found it extremely hard to listen to the right-wing fear mongering over healthcare. Now I’m being forced to witness the same thing from the left on immigration.

Questioning the premise that the Arizona law can be implemented without racial profiling, this article states, “But unless Arizona law enforcement actually catches someone in the act of crossing the border illegally, there’s no way to really establish reasonable suspicion except by race or ethnicity.” Oh really? How about if an officer pulls over a car because it’s running at night with its lights off (something smugglers do with regularity), and upon looking in the car, the officer sees a dozen people crouched and trying to hide? Might that constitute “reasonable suspicion” without any racial profiling?

I had hoped the left was better than this. But I guess it’s just too much to ask that they pass on such excellent sounds bites as, “Breathing while brown” and “When brown means illegal.” Illegal immigration is a problem with serious negative effects. Maybe at some point we can get past the incendiary rhetoric and have a real discussion on the matter.

What part of “illegal immigration” do liberals have difficulty understanding? The legislation now waiting for Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer’s signature is an attempt by the State of Arizona to address a real issue. Is the proposed law the best way to address the problem? I’ll take a stand and say, “No.” But in the vacuum of any federal action, something has to happen.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimated the number of illegal immigrants in Arizona in 1992 to be around 57,000. By 2006, that number had swelled to 500,000, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The fact is that, today, regardless of the source of the numbers, you have to recognize that somewhere near 10 percent of the population of Arizona is there illegally. Do you think the federal government would remain idle if this were the case in all fifty states?

It’s far too easy for people outside of the states directly impacted by illegal immigration to cast the issue solely in the light of civil rights. But in Arizona, California, Texas and other states, the impact is real and growing at an alarming rate. Since illegal immigrants are here . . . well . . . “illegally,” it’s difficult to get accurate numbers, but even conservative estimates place the current number of illegal aliens at 12 million nationwide and agree that they’re numbers are growing between 500,000 and 1 million every year.

Regardless of what people want to think, these numbers place both a social and economic toll on the states where the problem is concentrated. Contrary to liberal assertions, residents of Arizona are not in favor of the new legislation by a 70 percent majority because they’re all racial bigots. They support action because they’re experiencing a rise in crime while also going through difficult economic times, and both issues are exacerbated by the real effects of illegal immigration.

The fact is that the federal government is not enforcing control of our border with Mexico, and that lack of enforcement presents a range of very real issues. Never mind the national security concerns, which in the light of global terrorism are not trivial, you’re still left with the effects of crime and a huge burden on state economies. There is a cost for illegal immigration. It directly impacts the safety of American citizens and impedes our ability to provide the education and healthcare they need.

In case you haven’t noticed, states across the Country are having serious budget issues. Cuts are being made just to make ends meet, and one area that’s suffering greatly is education. Since the 1982 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision, states have been legally saddled with the expense to educate illegal alien students. Again, accurate cost estimates are difficult to determine, but according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), “The total K-12 school expenditure for illegal immigrants costs the states nearly $12 billion annually, and when the children born here to illegal aliens are added, the costs more than double to $28.6 billion.” And this is really just the tip of the iceberg. When dual-language costs and free lunch programs are taken into account, the price tag gets larger still. Add the potential costs of liberal proposals to provide in-state tuitions and you’re starting to see the picture.

Of course, education isn’t the only affected area. Healthcare is another concern. In accordance with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, hospitals are required to provide medical treatment to whoever enters their doors, regardless of immigration status. This is obviously a sound humanitarian policy, but since illegal aliens are rarely covered by any sort of health insurance, this becomes the de facto standard for their medical care. Not only does this dynamic clog hospital waiting rooms and inhibit their ability to provide real emergency care, but it also adds significantly to healthcare costs by utilizing expensive hospital services for routine care. A 2004 study conducted by FAIR estimated the uncompensated cost for Arizona to be $400 million, and with the illegal population continuing to grow, so are the costs.

The rest of America can ignore these economic issues if they choose. They can also ignore the increases in crime, in violent crime like murder. They can ignore the fact that an American city, Phoenix, Arizona, is now second in the world, behind Mexico City, in its number of kidnappings. Yes, Americans can continue to ignore illegal immigration, but they do so at their own future cost.

Illegal immigration is not a racial issue. The issue is that a crime is being perpetrated upon the citizens of America, and the federal government is allowing it to happen. This situation negatively impacts the lives of Americans every day. As you consider the issue, ask yourself how you would like for your home to become threatened by increases in crime. Ponder the economic consequences, which in addition to those mentioned above include, the cost of incarceration, which the FAIR study estimated to be $80 million in 2004, the effects on the depression of wages, and negative impact on resources and the environment. Do this, and you will hopefully begin to appreciate the full context of the issue and its impact on law abiding American citizens.

The Arizona legislation is being unfairly characterized as racially motivated and hate-based, and the liberals carrying that message should be ashamed of themselves. Just as the Republican hyperbole over healthcare reform was stretched to the incendiary extreme, so are the worst case scenarios now being spewed by liberals. If liberals want to be part of the solution for illegal immigration, then they’ll be well served to address ALL of the issues and not simply be the immigration “Party of No.”

Admittedly, there is potential for abuse in the Arizona law, but that’s really no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water. The Arizona legislation needs clarification of the methods for its implementation. The law does prohibit racial profiling, which will be difficult, but at some point trust needs to be placed in law enforcement. The fact is that unauthorized immigration is already illegal; the Arizona law simply enables State and local authorities to enforce laws that the federal government has neglected.

If you’re truly concerned with civil liberty, then let your voice be heard and demand that the federal government finally move beyond lip service and address illegal immigration. America needs a comprehensive solution for these issues. That solution will likely include some sort of “guest worker” program and allow for some amount of planned LEGAL immigration of those here illegally. Whatever the solution looks like in the end, America needs secure borders and enforcement of immigration laws. Said enforcement will obviously require people to show proof of their legal status. That proof could be as simple as a card, but let’s be honest — there’s no way to actually enforce the laws without such a requirement.

Don’t kid yourself, this is without doubt a civil rights issue, but the rights in question are those of all law abiding American citizens. Our government is based on a system of laws, without which we would have anarchy. Immigration and border control are an integral part of that system, and those who decide to break the law should be held accountable.

We as Americans agree to abide by the law. Is there any possible justification for not requiring that foreign nationals do so as well?