Los Tigres del Norte

In the long run, the wasteful, disgraceful, anti-Mexican, anti-American, and anti-democratic Arizona law that orders the search and seizure of its Chicano residents may be a good thing. If not the last nail in the GOPO coffin, it might could be the second or third to last.

I mean, are there any American constituencies left for them to harass? Between this hateful police state Act and their defense of oligarchy, are they, once and for all, revealed as the party of totalitarianism?

Of course, the long run is not where we live. We must suffer the here-and-now. Or the there-and-now, depending on whether or not you live in Arizona.

I have two beautiful, brown, nieces living in Phoenix presently so I take this shit seriously. One is doing her medical residency at Maricopa County General and the other is doing baseball players' hair while she apprentices for her cosmetology certificate in that city.

Both are more hip-hop than Hispanic but you couldn't tell that by looking at them. I gather that's what Arizona law enforcement is supposed to do; eyeball the parade of residents and make a judgement as to which ones should be challenged for proof of citizenship. My nieces' granddaddy walked to this country from Guadalajara and married a woman from Catulla, Texas so, you know, they probably look, to an Arizona peckerwood, like they just strolled across the Sonora.

The fact that they are 100%, bona-fide, true blue, red-blooded Americans, who do not suffer fools lightly, means they are likely to crack wise the first time they are stopped by Arizona's newly deputized la migra. I'm not worried about them being deported. I'm worried about them being convicted of contempt of cop. Deportation has to be run through some sort of sketchy, half-assed, due process. Contempt of cop is a drumhead charge, subject to summary punishment.

Funny thing is, the people most likely to have proper documentation, whatever it is, are the undocumented. In my little, rural, Four Corners, county, I could direct you to a half dozen bars where you could buy any identity document you want. I have a friend from San Luis de Potosi who has I don't know how many Social Security numbers. Same with his wife. I've lived in this country all my life and I only have the one.

You want a driver's license? You can have it in an hour. For any state in the Union. You want a green card? By the time you finish your drink you'll be fully authorized, sanitized, and legitimized. You want a passport? Step into the parking lot of dos Hermanos. The State Department should be so efficient.

People have raised the question, and rightly so, about racial profiling; how do you know what an immigrant, an illegal immigrant, looks like?

I have a different question.

What does an American look like?