After the amnesty of 1986, I bagan to notice a greater and greater number of contacts with Hispanics and found that MANY knew little or no English. Of course in the intervening time I took it upon myself to learn at least enough Spanish (thanks Nora) to deal with most basic law enforcement scenarios, and it is now almost a pre-requisite in my city for law enforcement officers to speak at least some Spanish since we have numerous daily contacts with non-English speakers.

If I lived in Mexico, and knew that I could come to the U.S. (even in an illegal manner) and make substantially more money without ever having to go through any citizenship classes or learn English and be catered to with all manner of signage, government documents and services, TV and radio, etc. in my native tongue, never be questioned as to why I am here, and maybe have the possibility of a full amnesty sometime in the future to forgive me for sneaking into the country (just like in 1986), why wouldn’t I?

As an aside, has anyone else ever noticed how those on the left always use the number 20 million when talking about deportation: “You can’t just deport 20,000,000 people!”, but use ten or twelve million as the number when talking about how many folks are actually here illegally: “Well, something needs to be done to provide a ‘pathway to citizenship’ for the 10 to 12, 000,000 folks who are living in the shadows.” or is it just me?

But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.’ — Theodore ROOSEVELT, 1907.

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But it *is* based on principles and that is the issue. The Principle is that illegal aliens benefit more from a welfare state that caters to them than not and if we can allow them to vote then they will vote for the ones that give them that ability.

The principle being followed here is a real one and one they are trying to dance away from while still embrace. They know if they embrace it then they will loose but they also know that is a LARGE voting segment (if they can get all the stars to align). They also know that a great deal of their supporters will be supporters no matter what too.

As such it *is* on principle that they do this – it just isn’t on principle with respect to illegal immigration (they could care less). As long as you insist on framing it as such they can do what they want – but if you can force them to tell what they *really* think then they will be toast.

Arizona is trying to force that – their “new” law will in reality do little to nothing to stop/stem the illegals flowing in. What it *will* do is force people to look at what is being pushed, not what is being talked about.

In order for something like this to work it would either require enough states to enforce it that it might as well be federal or have the feds do it. Arizona opens the door for states to do it and forces the feds to let out into the open what they really believe or loose what they are trying to win. They are desperately trying to keep the fiction going and *that* is the principle – not illegals.

Ah, but the problem here is self-evident under the Dems — their position is that there IS no Federal immigration law…

It seems that the Feds suit of Arizona is entirely a political show, and not based on any principles. What a surprise!