“Good luck.” “Thanks”

In Arizona, you can now be stopped by the police, without cause, and asked to produce citizenship (or other authorization) documentation on the spot.  This practice is not new.  In one of my favorite movies, The Great Escape, the German characters did this quite often, and successfully rooted out those pesky escaped Allied prisoners, sometimes with deadly results.  During a climactic scene, the crafty German inspector tricks one of the protagonists (James Donald, I believe) into answering an English question with the appropriate English response, thus revealing his true country of origin.  Perhaps Arizona officials could entrap those of color into saying “gracias” as a method of identifying those who don’t belong.

While the law as written is probably unconstitutional (IMHO – in my humble opinion), you have to sympathize with the legal residents of that state.  Estimates that I have seen put the population of immigrants there illegally at 450,000, with no end in sight for the flow of humanity across the border.  That’s a lot of people to absorb into the infrastructure of the state.  I get it.  I view this new law as a gross overreaction, morally offensive, and potentially incendiary; however, if it forces the Federal government to fulfill its’ proper role and finally address the issue in a comprehensive manner quickly, I guess that it has served its’ purpose.  The time is long overdue for action. 

Let’s hope cooler heads prevail, before any more scenes from The Great Escape get reenacted on the streets of Tucson.