Arizona Gets Immigration Bill Right

I applaud Governor Jan Brewer and all the lawmakers who successfully passed Arizona's new immigration bill. Illegal immigration is putting a financial strain on this country that we cannot bear right now and something drastic had to be done. I hope that others states on the border will follow Arizona's lead and pass tough immigration bills that can help relieve this burden our country currently faces because of illegal immigration.

Now, to be fair and open-minded let me say that there are provisions of the Arizona law that might be somewhat questionable. According to an article on CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/25/arizona.immigration.protest/index.html?hpt=T1), this new law will require "immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times." I do not know how many documents make up the said "alien registration documents" but I can see how that would be a difficult task and I truly hate that people who have gone through legal avenues to be in this country will have to be burdened with something like this. For the most part, every other aspect of this bill makes sense.

I can truly understand why people from all areas, races, genders, ethnicities, and religions have strong opinions about this. It is absolutely amazing that the immigration issue has stayed in the background for as long as it has. I guess that happens when you are fighting an unpopular war and your country has just emerged from one of the worst financial crisis it has ever seen. With all of that being said it is time that this country faces our immigration problem head on. I think anybody in their right mind will agree that Arizona's new law is controversial but at this point right now it is going to take a very strong law (effort) to alleviate the immigration crisis facing this country. Maybe 10 or 20 years we ago we could have had a somewhat weaker response but a weak response is no longer an option.

If certain people in Arizona dislike this law enough they have plenty of options. A) Move to another state. B) Move back to Mexico. C) Come together in a unified effort to help this country crackdown on illegal immigration and all of its problems so laws like this will not be needed in the future. D) Just put up with it.

We live in the greatest country in the world but we face some daunting taks in the future (e.g., national security, jobs, debt, etc.). It would be really nice if we could try and nip this one in the bud to the best of our ability right now and I truly believe Arizona is trying to do that. We are all tired of paying our hard earned money so that illegal immigrants can enjoy services for free that we pay for in addition to taxes.