You do realize there is no way of telling if someone is here legally or not don't you?

[NNN0LHI]

In 1949 we deported "Mexican-looking" US citizens. How do we know the people coming here aren't the descendants of these American citizens and are themselves US citizens? We don't do we? They are just as much US citizens as any of us are.

Thats why this entire deal is all fucked up.

Don



http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/history/timeline/20.html

Operation Wetback

In 1949 the Border Patrol seized nearly 280,000 illegal immigrants. By 1953, the numbers had grown to more than 865,000, and the U.S. government felt pressured to do something about the onslaught of immigration. What resulted was Operation Wetback, devised in 1954 under the supervision of new commissioner of the Immigration and Nationalization Service, Gen. Joseph Swing.

Swing oversaw the Border patrol, and organized state and local officials along with the police. The object of his intense border enforcement were "illegal aliens," but common practice of Operation Wetback focused on Mexicans in general. The police swarmed through Mexican American barrios throughout the southeastern states. Some Mexicans, fearful of the potential violence of this militarization, fled back south across the border. In 1954, the agents discovered over 1 million illegal immigrants.

In some cases, illegal immigrants were deported along with their American-born children, who were by law U.S. citizens. The agents used a wide brush in their criteria for interrogating potential aliens. They adopted the practice of stopping "Mexican-looking" citizens on the street and asking for identification. This practice incited and angered many U.S. citizens who were of Mexican American descent. Opponents in both the United States and Mexico complained of "police-state" methods, and Operation Wetback was abandoned.

[Cant trust em]

1. You just look for the Star of David sewn into their clothes....

...oh wait, that was Nazi Germany.

[Solly Mack]

2. k/r

[DefenseLawyer]

3. Rand Paul suggests "pieces for flair" for all legal, but suspicious looking brown people to wear

Problem solved. Of course we would have a minimum number of pieces, but most would choose to wear more, and he would encourage that.

[alstephenson]

4. "and Operation Wetback was abandoned"....

only to be resurrected in Arizona more than 50 years later.

[gratuitous]

5. Sure you can!

Arizona just passed a law saying you could. It's apparently very easy. Me? I'm usually stumped, but law enforcement folks in Arizona have, like, superhuman powers of discernment not available to ordinary mortals. Besides, if we hadn't had Operation Wetback in the 1950s, we might not have had future Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist accosting people in line to vote in 1964, demanding proof of their citizenship. And what might have happened to our country if Mr. Rehnquist hadn't established early in his career a willingness to do anything to further conservative goals, and blazed the trail for so many to follow?

[Warren Stupidity]

6. If it is brown send it down.

Operation Wetback was an amazing abomination, and of course it did nothing at all to 'fix' the 'problem' of the demographic transition of the southwest to majority hispanic.

[Lasher]

7. Well then I guess there's no use in even thinking about it.

Anybody who opposes open borders is a nazi. All people born in Mexico have a right to be in the US. You're a racist if you disagree with anything I say.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Whats there to think about?

There is no way of knowing.

How would you feel if it had been your parents who were American citizens and were rounded up and deported before you were born?

What would you be thinking about?

Don

[Xicano]

20. The Irony is....

We've been here for THOUSANDS of years but yet a number of descendants from those who came here only a short while ago and not respecting the true owners of this land now cry about people who've been here for thousands of years as being illegal and not respecting a land full of descendants of illegal immigrants from Europe.

I am just saying...

[Warren Stupidity]

23. But they drew a line on a map!

Really, what is it with this nation of immigrants that half of us periodically decide that the REAL PROBLEM is all those other immigrants over there?

If the threat of ugliness was not real it would be a joke. Within 50 years the entire American southwest, most of which we stole from Mexico, most of which they stole from native people, will simply be a majority hispanic and a dominantly spanish speaking region of North America, and the border with Mexico will be even more fictitious than it is today.

[laughingliberal]

9. John McCain said we could tell by their shoes. nt

[blondeatlast]

18. Asince mercifully tombstoned poster last night swore he could tell because the illegals "look

more Indian."

Dear God Almighty, yes, I read it right here at DU. At DU.

[laughingliberal]

22. Glad I missed that one. Not sure my blood pressure could take it. nt

[dkf]

10. That is why simply asking everyone to show their drivers license if they have been

Pulled over for a violation is the best way to do this.

Then everyone is treated equally

As long as everyone is subject to the same scrutiny there can be no accusations of profiling.

[virgogal]

11. Don't they do that now?

[dkf]

13. Yes. This law will require the same request to see your drivers license.

The difference is that if you can't produce one you will have to prove you are here legally. But it is illegal to drive without a license anyway.

[virgogal]

17. Thanks !

[Warren Stupidity]

12. A driver's license neither proves not disproves citizenship or residency status.

It proves you have a drivers license.

And anyway, the result will be that the Arizona police will pull over all brown people, find a violation, and check their licenses hoping to deport, which brings us to that other small problem, the Supremacy Clause of the USC.

Arizona cannot enforce its own version of border security and immigration policy, that is the province of the federal government.

[dkf]

14. That is what the Arizona law requires to prove you are here legally.

Once provided the status check is over.

[Warren Stupidity]

15. Arizona cannot enforce its own border security or immigration policy.

That power resides entirely with the federal government.

Lack of a driver's license also does not establish lack of legal residency status, all it establishes is that you do not have a driver's license on you.

[dkf]

16. If you do not have a drivers license on you you can already be detained until you show

Proof of ID. Also your car can be impounded.

While a drivers license doesn't necessarily prove you are here legally that is all AZ requires.

There are 3 states that don't comply with the real ID law and those licenses won't suffice. But the majority of people should be fine.

[struggle4progress]

19. Actually, about 25 states have statutes or binding resolutions against REAL ID compliance

That's a major reason the most recent 1 January 2010 deadline for compliance was extended by DHS

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

21. So ammend driver's license issue policies to include residency status.

When you go to renew, have valid ID.

FWIW, when I renew my license I needed to show valid ID (I just brought a passport).