In the news a lot what with the Arizona law. Where exactly does one begin?
This post won't solve anything. Heck, as much as anything it's my first attempt to sort things out using tags/labels. But there are a few starting points for this discussion that I feel pretty certain about.
There ought not to be laws that simply aren't enforced. If you don't actually mean something to happen/change, you ought not put it into law. Now I accept that no law can be 100% enforced and I'm not thinking of such instances. I am thinking of situations that are 99%+ overlooked.
Enforcement of immigration laws does, however, seem to present serious problems so long as we're not willing to adopt some form of national ID and not willing to require everyone to carry their ID. The characterization of such laws as "draconian" and "fascist" is understandable. But that stance does tend to make immigration control unenforceable.
What's more, resolution of this conflict would seem to be essential. Regardless of where one comes down on the continuum of immigration control - from incredibly loose to insanely tight - the possibility will be that some people are here illegally, whether their numbers are millions or merely hundreds. If we mean whatever restrictions we may choose to keep in place, it will be necessary to have a means of separating the sheep from the goats.
