Will history repeat itself?  Arizona law SB 1070 may be the start a chain of events that ends well for law abiding undocumented immigrants.  Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.  Thirty-five years ago Texas passed a bad law restricting access to education.  Eleven years later, partially as a result of that law two million people were on the path to citizenship.

A new organization in the UK has put together an excellent fact sheet about immigration.  You can go directly to the I Love Migrants site . Or cut and paste this link: http://ilovemigrants.wordpress.com/i%E2%99%A5home/

An exerpt:   "Migrants will look after the old: Only through migration will there be enough young people to look after the elderly." read more

In reality the presentation of facts will only work to convince those with open minds.  Most minds are made up already and dismiss facts that don't confirm their beliefs.  But this is the beauty of I Love Migrants.  Their main appeal is to the emotions.  And they claim the emotional high ground.  Love is better than hate.

Rabbi Grater of the Pasadena Jewish Center and Temple a terrific sermon in the Jewish Journal commenting on the danger of Arizona SB 1070.

LINK TO THE SERMON

An exerpt:"We all should be paying attention to what is happening in our country right now, for it is not just Arizona.  There is a swelling of anger and fear which is boiling over, as we continue to suffer from a serious recession, loss of jobs, loss of homes, loss of control that thought we had over our lives.  The past history, of which we Jews know all too well, teaches us that when things start to falter in society, people look for others to blame.  And while it has been the Jews in the past"

Arizona SB 1070 was passed as a government response to the shooting of a rancher in an election year.  It was signed today by Governor Jan Brewer.

It clearly is an overreaction that violates the “unreasonable search and seizure” clause of the Constitution.  I shouldn’t have to prove to anyone that asks that I am a legal resident of the USA.  This is so unfair to anyone who doesn’t look “Anglo” that hopefully a court will hold up enforcement until after it has been reviewed in the courts.

On the other hand, every cloud has a silver lining  this might be the catalyst that will cause the Democrats in Congress to actually propose a bill that can pass.  Certainly in 2004 opposition to HR 4437 was the catalyst for the surge of Latino activism that provided the votes to get Barak Obama elected in 2008. 

Republicans introduced two immigrant-bashing bills in the House this week.  One would change the intent of the 14^thAmendment and the other would make it difficult for undocumented residents to get lower “in-state” college tuition .  These two ill-timed and seemingly spiteful bills may insure that the Democrats maintain control of the House of Representatives in the November election.