They'll Get Ya Comin' or Goin'

What a nightmare, all the half-truths and scare tactics being employed this 4th of July weekend! If you believe the media, you don't dare venture into Arizona because you'll be stopped, grilled, and thrown in the slammer. If you believe the other half of the media, you don't dare leave Arizona because you'll never be allowed back in. No matter that the new law does not take effect until July 29: throw the scare at travelers over America's birthday celebration as that better fuels the divisiveness.

The Arizona law is the same law that's on the federal books: if/when an individual is stopped for a legal reason, such as a traffic violation, law enforcement has the legal right to ask for documentation. Most of us don't think twice: we get out the driver's license, vehicle registration, and proof of insurance before the officer can stroll to the window and request the paperwork. If you have the papers, you'll either get a warning, a fix it ticket, or an appearance ticket. No driver's license means you may get a ticket for driving without a license -- but if you also don't have insurance or registration papers, you're going to be arrested regardless of your immigration status. And if you're driving under the influence, all the proper paperwork in the world is not going to keep you out of jail.

If I'm in Mexico, Canada, or foreign countries without contiguous borders to the US, I have to carry my passport. No passport: I either leave voluntarily or I am arrested and deported. I don't have rights; I have responsibilities. Because I am a law-abiding citizen in my own country, I also obey the laws of foreign countries when I am a guest outside my own borders. What is expected in other countries is expected in the United States, but when a state decides to tighten enforcement of the federal laws regarding immigration, the world responds as if it is a personal offense. America doesn't question the right of foreign countries to regulate visitors to their countries, so why would anyone question the right of America to regulate visitors to our country?

President Obama says he does not want to give blanket amnesty to anyone residing in the country illegally, but also cannot deport the estimated 12 million people so doing. He says the immigration process needs to be reformed, but has no idea how to make that happen. He says we have a problem, but let's not make the problem bigger or worse by doing something about it, such as the citizens of Arizona have done. He says there are more boots on the ground than there were 20 years ago, a totally "no duh" statement if ever there was one. There are more workers at the DMV, but it takes longer to get an appointment to conduct business than it did 20 years ago because there are more licensed drivers and vehicles to register. Ditto the borders!

Even though there are more border agents on the southern border, there are more illegal entries, especially because the media publicizes that nothing is ever going to happen to anyone who is here illegally! Rather than securing our borders, health and wellness stations have been established in the desolate reaches of the desert to help save the lives of individuals who cross the border illegally and ill-prepared to survive the journey. Even the President said in his recent address that there are "hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants" entering the United States each year because our borders are not secure. The President claims that he's more than doubled the number of boots on the ground, but if the starting number was in the hundreds and the ending number is about a thousand, it doesn't take much to understand that hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants cannot be contained by a thousand border guards.

The majority of travelers to and from Arizona have nothing to fear if they are in the country legally, have a registered vehicle, proof of insurance, and a driver's license, and do not break any laws or become involved in an accident. For a person who cannot provide the proof required by the laws of the land, it is best to stay home and celebrate America's birthday in the backyard.