Man Tawnos, I just lost some respect for you. First you pull the race(ist) card, then you make personal attacks while completely ignoring what I said. I'm sorry if you think an accurate analogy of the current situation as it is is "racist," but it's simply the truth.
I simply pointed out that you should perhaps pay attention to the words used. You claimed that "illegal aliens have no rights the minute they cross the border." I pointed out that Madison showed the logical end of having no rights - capital punishment with neither jury nor trial. I did *not* pull the "race card", as I attempted to gain no political or economic benefit through mention of race. I did, however, call your classification and stereotyping of Mexican immigrants to be racist. Your claim that "it's simply the truth" is questionable at best, but it echoes the same sentiment of the most vile racial claims. By generalizing a population of individuals as reflecting and supporting the actions of that population's worst members, you do no better than one who thinks all gun owners are racist redneck hicks who would shoot someone over a parking space.
You keep using the word "immigrant," but these people are NOT immigrants! As I said before, immigrants assimilate.
An immigrant is simply one who moves to a new country with the intent to settle there. Assimilation is not required to meet the definition of immigrant. Moreover, you discount those who come here and assimilate to the best of their ability, whose kids, as second generation immigrants, have the ability and time to grow up in an assimilated fashion, based on their parents' sacrifices.
Those of whom we are speaking have NO desire to become Americans. They don't want to join our society, they want to take advantage of it, then go home. You say "legitimate" immigration is so difficult, and yet immigrants (REAL immigrants) from VIRTUALLY EVERY OTHER COUNTRY manage to do it by their thousands.
How do you know this? How can you even make this claim, when those who want to come here and join our society through the legal channels cannot due to a quota system established at the height of the Great Depression? Legally, there can be no more immigrants than 700,000 per year. Those from Mexico, practically, cannot immigrate without immediate dependent family that are US citizens. If there are thousands that don't have the option to come through legal channels, how can you say they don't want to "join our society"? Why are there so many that have bought homes, raised kids, and done everything that indicates they want to be part of the US? Certainly, there are exceptions, but if you judge a population based on the exceptions you'll get nowhere good.
Basically, I'm asking how you can claim anything regarding the immigrant population when we provide practically no means for them to come here, to stay, legally?
And Arizona DID realize there's a better way: ACTUALLY ENFORCING THE LAW! Illegal aliens have been flooding out of the state since this whole thing started, showing that enforcement, even the mere THREAT of enforcement, WORKS!
And I think you would know better, just because a judge says something, doesn't make it right.
Arizona went farther than that, it's why they got constitutionally smacked down. They stepped outside of the bounds of the highest law in the country, the Constitution. Much as
Hiibel v. Nevada and
Brown v. Texas before it stated, we are not a "papers, please" society. The fact you want to drive us that direction sickens me. Let's try standing up for more than just the second amendment, eh?