I don't see that as a bad thing. If a company can only remain in business by exploiting workers then that company needs to fail. Great Britain’s GDP is said to have dropped 10% when slavery was abolished. I'm sure some Brits used that as a scare tactic for keeping slavery.

Some businesses will see a decline in profit and others will fail completely, but so what? Let’s see the real cost of goods and services so we can make an informed decision, as the right says; let the market decide.

No one has mentioned how NAFTA has increased the border crossing problem. Thom Hartmann always talks about it.

I look at those jobs like trash collectors; no one wants to do it so the city has to pay more to attract workers. Wouldn’t the same apply to agriculture, construction, meat packing etc?

Liberals are OK with bills that would forgive illegal aliens of crimes, such as the illegal use of other peoples' SS numbers, that would get actual American citizens thrown in jail. (That provision was part of the anmesty bill that libs and some Republicans tried to push through in 2006.)

Liberals are OK with giving in-state tuition prices to illegal immigrants who live in other states, but not giving the same deal to actual American citizens. What's wrong with this picture??

To Samfox: Please, there is no serious comparison between 20 million illegal immigrants who have come to the US and a few thousand (your numbers) Americans who do the same in Mexico. You neglect to mention that Mexico is vigilant with kicking illegal immigrants out of Mexico, while encouraging Mexicans to immigrate illegally to the US.

AZ's law has more stringent protections for the citizens.

So, if ya'll who don't like the AZ law whatcha gonna DO about the FED law? You gonna boycott DC? Take to the streets? Where are your blogs, street protests & out rage against the Fed law?

We get this kind of tripe in AZ because we have to do a job the Feds won't do. Papers please, German style. Gimme a break!!!By the way. I was born in Tucson. I KNOW how badly we need the Gov to step up.

AHH! The fresh stench of duplicity fills the air!!

SamFox

I live in a Mexican border city, and we are being overrun by a large/growing number of Anglos living here without proper Resident Visas from Mexico's Immigration Services.

Worse, many are receiving public assistance from USA taxpayers and committing criminal acts. The schemes used revolve around sub-leasing your section 8 subsidized housing in the USA to profit from the 30% the recipient pays and the amount collected from the sub-lessee...........another scam is living in Mexico while receiving cash benefits, and Medi-CAL for the poor & disabled which are utilized to cover their costs of living outside the USA........many sell/trade their food stamps. They are in general low class drunks, drug users and older persons on SS who cannot afford to live in their own country....they use PO boxes,and USA addresses for correspondence, and to retain eligibility for welfare benefits.

Mexico doesn't conduct raids looking to deport American illegals because they provide an economic benefit to the community, and they number in the few thousands............so "illegal" cuts both ways

This has all be engineered by the financial system when money has be taken out of the country illegally for expanding markets in Asia and to lower the standard of living in America and the Free Trade Agreement flooded the country with illegal immigrants who are poor adding to the lowering of the standard of living. There needs to be more of a total picture. Also, how can you avoid racial profiling with so many illegal immigrants.

1) The author of the infamous SB1070 has shady connections with a racist group (this was slightly publicized when the bill first came into the spotlight, but I no longer recall the name of the group). In addition, do we really want to say that there's no racist intent in a legislator that routines uses the term "wetbacks" to refer to Mexican-Americans, be they here legally or otherwise?

2a) The law is "designed" to work thusly: police officer (of whatever jurisdiction) detains person for probable cause of involvement in criminal activity -- officer has reasonable suspicion (NOT due to race or color of skin!) of possible illegal status -- officer requests paperwork to prove identity and lawful presence -- if no such proof is on the suspected illegal immigrant, the person is detained and ICE is contacted.

2b) In some (many) jurisdictions, the law WILL work thusly: police officer (of whatever jurisdiction) detains person whom s/he has reasonable suspicion (based on appearance of lack of English fluency) of non-resident status -- officer requests paperwork to prove identity and lawful presence -- etc.

2c) Keep in mind, "probable cause of criminal activity" is a pretty low bar to hit with traffic stops. Kinda hard to prove you weren't really going 2mph over the speed limit, or that you weren't swerving in any way. Oh, and routine traffic stops -- such as planned stops on Friday/Saturday nights -- to check for possible drunk driving? Keep in mind that this constitutes "lawful contact" -- so that's another place where they can get you. Or if you're driving or walking down the street, they can stop you and question you if they "have reports of X criminal activity in the area"... and boom, step 1 is completed.

3) Claiming that all police officers either are, or are not, racist in any way is an invalid position. I don't pretend that every officer in the state will use illegal techniques to get the chance to pounce on someone for possibly being illegal -- but there are those that will. Is having even one American citizen suffer this sort of Nazi-esque treatment worth the ousting of illegal immigrants, who are not the violent, layabout job-thieves they're painted as?

4) For those of you who keep claiming they're stealing our tax money by using public assistance, news flash: in order to apply for any state or federal programs, you MUST... again, MUST... supply proof of legal residence (including SSN) for each member of your household. Any false/misleading or omitted information is grounds for denial of services. There may be... and likely are... children of illegal immigrants in the school systems, but their parents aren't collecting Welfare or Food Stamps for them. And if they DO manage to land jobs, they pay taxes on their wages. Any taxable purchases they make in the state, they pay those taxes. They don't get a magic wand to make all their taxes go away... Hel, even day visitors from across the border, who come up to shop in Tucson, have to pay sales tax. (I used to work at a local Target, where having customers from Mexico was a common occurrence on the weekends, and I assure you, they paid sales tax same as everyone else... and were often more gracious about it than the state residents, who actually benefit from the programs that our taxes put into place.)

Finally, my stand on this whole mess is that reform is not only desirable, but necessary. For those who are unaware, the timeline to become an American "the right way"? In most cases, it's over a decade. The hoops and the red tape and the petty bureaucracy is insane, and going through all that -- just to end up somewhere where you're persecuted for the color of your skin? Sometimes I wonder why people still want to immigrate to the US.

Oh, and now Brewer is claiming that most illegal immigrants just come across the border to help the drug cartels, because they're smuggling drugs on them. To me, this merely proves one of two things: the depth of her insanity or the strength of her racism.

Bottom line: If anyone should have the ability to tell people to get out of the US, it's the Native Americans. This was Native American land before the White Man came over and stole it, for those who've forgotten their US history lessons. As for me, I'm just glad to count down the days until I can leave this state and move somewhere less racist/homophobic/bigoted.