About immigration...

I am at a loss when I want to write about immigration. No, I have dozens of things to write, but how I can compress them into a brief blog post I don't know. But here are some recent events.

In case you missed it, Mesa Police Chief George Gascón wrote a piece for the Viewpoints section of Sunday's Arizona Republic. He did not take on the anti-immigrant crowd directly the way Chief Jack Harris from Phoenix Police did after the recent killing of a Phoenix P.D. officer by a Mexican national who had repeatedly entered the U.S. illegally. Still, the get-rid-of-the-illegals-at-all-costs crowd will not like Chief Gascón's column. In it he sites internal statistics from the Mesa P.D. showing that just 24% of arrests in Mesa are Latinos, about in line with the city's Latino population (25%). And of Latinos arrested, certainly many are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents. So if illegal immigrants are really causing all the crime that Russell Pearce and others claim (80% plus), then they must be Anglo illegal immigrants, since Anglos make up 62% of the arrests in Mesa. Perhaps the I.R.A. has established a syndicate in the East Valley? Now THAT would be newsworthy!

On the same page of Sunday's paper, Linda Valdez also wrote a column about the immigration hysteria, along with her concerns about racial profiling and Sheriff Joe. She talks about the controversy of the Mexican flag flying at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum outside of Tucson. The flag was briefly removed by the museum after threats were received from anti-Mexican extremists. It is worth noting that the Sonoran Desert, whose plant and animal life are showcased at the Desert Museum, lies in both the Mexican state of Sonora and in Arizona. The Mexican and American flags have both flown at the museum for 50 years. And apparently those who contacted the museum threatening to hurt the animals inside because the Mexican flag was displayed outside were never Boy Scouts. U.S. flag etiquette has long allowed the U.S. flag to fly with other countries' flags, provided they are on separate staffs, about the same size, and that one is not higher than the other during peace time. Why does the anger, hatred, and in many cases, downright racism of a few force us to change long standing U.S. flag etiquette, or cause a well respected museum to briefly give in to domestic terrorists who want to harm animals because they don't like U.S. flag etiquette...or brown people?

People have a right to their opinions, and the frustration Americans feel about our broken immigration system is understandable. But don't we still have a responsibility to get our facts right? And why do people think that removing flags and hurting animals is going to solve our immigration problem? I don't think that kind of logic flies, even in Congress.