OPINION:
I’m so sick of the gripe that the new Arizona immigration law will result in “racial profiling” that I could scream (“Arizona law will triumph in court,” Opinion, Friday). Of course it’s going to involve profiling - why shouldn’t it and how couldn’t it? A well-known cultural/racial profile describes where the problem they’re trying to address is coming from, does it not? The problem at issue is people illegally crossing the southern border with Mexico - and it so happens that virtually 100 percent of the people doing so are Hispanic. How many Swedes or Eskimos are crossing into the United States from Mexico?
Law enforcement work involves profiling every day. If you had a string of bank robberies and the witnesses in each case reported that a short, red-haired woman with a limp was the main suspect, and someone matching this description was seen driving away in a red Mazda after robbing the banks, would the cops check out everyone equally, or would they be on the lookout for short, red-haired women who limped and drove a red Mazda?
The illegal immigration problem, just like the terrorist problem, is a situation in which we shouldn’t ignore a pattern just to be politically correct. The likelihood that Arizona police might catch an illegal Scot in the state is pretty much zero, so they don’t need to keep an eye peeled for people who sport a kilt. Illegals have a common trait in this instance: They’re Hispanic and we all know it. My apologies if that makes all Hispanics part of the suspect class, but Arizona didn’t create the problem - illegal immigrants from Mexico did, so they’re going to have to expect that the cops are looking in their direction. Until the border gets sealed up, that’s going to be the way it is.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer ought to tell the civil liberties crowd to either hit the bricks or come stand guard at the border and stop all people equally from coming in. Then even they might see a pattern.
JACK WEBB
Springfield, Va.
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