I have been keeping up on the bill that was brought up in Arizona against immigration. The man who proposed it was personally hurt by an immigrant who shot down his son. He said that this had nothing to do with him drafting the bill-but a measure so strongly opposed made me wonder.
I didn’t believe that it was possible that such a law would be passed in America. I felt there was no way that an American could allow such a direct violation of human rights. We are a free country, we are able to walk the streets and not fear the violence and abuse that is often seen in other countries.
When I lived in Panama my home was two doors down from a mini supermercado and I always took my passport just to go there. The police were brutal and were always wanting to see identification. Panama’s passport visa has been up for debate for a few years, and so the police have enough power to throw whomever they want into jail if they feel they are a threat. Can you imagine what type of fear that put inside of me whenever I saw a police officer? I was petrified.
And this is what we are doing to the immigrants. The immigrants who for the most part would prefer to be in their countries where they can live life at a reasonable pace-not this crazy rat race we have in the US. They come because they want their children to have an education, they want to support their families, or they come because their countries, like Mexico are becoming too dangerous.
I am not saying there are not immigrants here because they want the American dream-of course there are and why would anyone not want it? We represent freedom in a confined world where dictators and communism prevail. America is certainly far from perfect, but if you have traveled at all then you can understand that we have more rights than any other country.
At lunch I was discussing this issue with a friend because I had read that Obama had come out opposed to it in a speech. I was relived that Obama was taking a stand and that he was opposed to this ridiculous law.
But when I came back from running, I jumped on Twitter and saw article after article saying that the Gov. Jan Brewer had passed the bill.
I cannot even describe the emotions that ran through me as I read the NY Times article. I was angry and so very sad-tears ran down my face and even now I want to go and do something about it immediately.
I hope this backfires on Republicans and ignorant citizens that have no idea who it is that resides in our country. Our families were all immigrants at one time or another-we are a mixed nation and this is wrong.
This law will break the trust of law enforcement in Arizona, it will give more power to the officers who are against immigration and may cause severe racial profiling.
That does not even include what it will feel like for these immigrants to live in Arizona. They will fear going to the grocery store or paying a bill. They will fear and fear and that fear will bring anger and when the anger cannot be contained anymore it will explode.
I do agree that the United States government has dropped the ball concerning immigration for a long time. It has not been dealt with and therefore this woman feels like she needs to march out the troops and sound the alarm on something that I am sure she does not even understand. But our country has been dealing with an economic depression-immigration was put behind for the time being.
President Obama needs to act quickly before other states begin to think about enacting the same laws and we become a country that is daily losing human rights.
I am fiercely against anything that undercuts the freedom we have been given and if Americans do not believe that this will affect them then they are sorely mistaken.
America loses more and more rights every day. And if we don’t do something about it, then we will only have ourselves to blame.
