Reply #31: false idea there [View All]

No one is doing that, or virtually no one.

The anti-immigrant hysteria has nothing to do with legality, and there is no reliable way to know a person's status that is consistent with the law and with the Bill of Rights. Nor do any of us want to give more power over us to employers.

The only way an employer can be free from harassment is to turn away brown job applicants. You can hire as many Eastern European farm workers as you like, and no one asks for any frigging documentation or stops them randomly on the street or "sees" any problem.

How do we know which white workers are "legal?" Perhaps they are guilty of much worse crimes in many cases than merely having paperwork that is lapsed or has not yet arrived. The only way to "catch" all criminals is to force all of us to prove that we are legal in all ways, according to and dependent upon the various police agencies - and that makes us all "guilty until proven innocent" and invites a police state.

If, among the immigrant community, there are those whose paperwork is not up to snuff, and if this justifies the things people are proposing to "solve" this "problem," then why stop there? Let's have federal paramilitary swat teams descend on all workplaces and force all employees to take drug tests on the spot. Bet we would catch a lot of people who are breaking the law all of the time that way.

"There are law breakers out there! We must do whatever it takes! All must be detained and questioned! Raid all job sites, question all people, investigate everyone! It is not human beings I am opposed to, it is illegal human beings and we know there are millions of them out there! If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear!"

Should work become a privilege, subject to authorization for each of us by Homeland Security? Should all employers become de facto agents for Homeland Security? Do you think this insanity will stop with the immigrants?