Papers, Por Favor

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The Governor of Arizona says she signed the nation's toughest immigration bill into law because "We cannot sacrifice our safety to the murderous greed of drug cartels. We cannot stand idly by as drophouses, kidnappings and violence compromise our quality of life." Additionally, Arizona - like many other southwestern states - faces crushing financial problems associated with the unchecked flood of illegal aliens.

Arizona police will now have the right - indeed, the responsibility - to ask for proof of legitimate immigration papers when they have reasonable cause to suspect that someone is in the country illegally. Put another way, the Arizona police will be empowered to enforce immigration laws that Federal law agencies have chosen to ignore.

Although police routinely and appropriately ask all Americans for proof of identity, vehicle registration, and place of residence, the additional ability to ask to see proof of legal immigration is being attacked as "racial profiling."

Barack Obama has strongly criticized the Arizona law, and declares that such enforcement "undermines the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.''

But isn't this the same "trust" that was severely undermined when the president declared last July (regarding the Cambridge police) that "there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that’s just a fact.”

Perhaps "Trust," along with "Hope" and "Change," should be retired as meaningless and empty words until someone with greater integrity is in the Whitehouse. And until then, we salute Arizona for attempting to restore the meaning of words like "law" and "enforcement."

Update: Angry protesters, some carrying signs accusing the government of Nazi-like behavior, assaulted an opposing demonstrator, then threw objects at police officers, a firetruck, and an ambulance. Dangerous "Tea Party" types on the rampage? Nope - these were hardcore liberals, which is why the media gave the mini-riot the laughably feel-good headline "Immigration Protest is Mostly Peaceful."

Update 2: Just to make sure that racial hatred is stoked to dangerous levels, Barack Obama told Hispanic citizens "if you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you're going to be harassed." When the president is declaring the police to be the enemy of the people, can total chaos be far off?