Hanging out in Arizona has given me an interesting perspective on the new State Law requiring Law Enforcement to alert Federal Agencies of suspected Illegal Immigrants. If anybody has been taking a look at the news, its getting a lot of coverage (Sadly to say more so than the massive oil spill in the Gulf or about BP's legal attempts to wiggle out of financial responsibility for the cleanup), but that might be because its more relative to the people live here.

The part of the law that is so controversial is the fact that by requiring officers to considering the citizenship of those under suspect implies that they are required to use stereotypes and race as the basis for that suspicion. I'm not sure if that's the extent of the law, but in reality, if the vast insurmountable majority of illegal immigrants are indeed from the other side of the border here, than yes, they will be Mexican (which doesn't imply one race to people who live in Mexico for that matter). Is that racist or just an application of common sense and reasonability? I have no problem with the law. I am in fact surprised at my interview of an officer of how inconsiderate police officers are of the majority of federal law. If you want immigration reform, argue for that, not for ignoring illegal immigrants.

Haha, and then this morning the news played for me a campaign commercial of a candidate for Governor of Alabama, Tim James, who is promising that if he is elected the Alabama Driving License Exam will be given only in English. This too, I have no problem with. English is the language of the law, a legal examination must be in English as far as I see. If a Police Officer stops you, what are you going to do if you don't speak English? People are calling this racist, and Tim James is responding its not about race, its about Language.

I think people are whining about the race card here. Perhaps people feel the culture they live in is being threatened too (on both sides of the argument). But that is not the same about whining about racism.