In response to Roberto Villarreal Meraz’s article, “Illegal immigration bill targets non-white people,” Arizona created the bill because the state is dealing with a crisis of illegal immigration. Millions of immigrants of Hispanic origin have flooded America, creating an economic crisis. It is only natural to investigate those who may be illegal.
Why should we be looking for Canadians? According to a Sept. 1 article by Tara Bahrampour in the Washington Post, out of the estimated 11.1 million illegal immigrants, 60 percent came from Mexico and 20 percent from Latin America, creating a total of 80 percent of illegal immigrants being Hispanic. Combined with Africa and Europe, Canadian immigrants only make up eight percent of the illegal population. Why should we waste our time searching for Canadian immigrants when they only represent an extremely small percentage?
If a store camera caught a white male stealing, would the police accuse a black male? No. The perpetrator was white, thus they will investigate white males. Not because they are “racist” by only asking for white men, but because it’s common sense to suspect an individual who is believed to have committed the crime, and illegal immigrants have committed a crime by simply being here.
As far as not wanting to show legal documentation of citizenship, I feel Meraz is doing a disservice to the American people. There are soldiers who sacrifice their lives for the safety of this country.
Can he not sacrifice showing proof of residency? It’s as simple as carrying around a driver’s license. People in Europe carry a national ID card proving their citizenship. I would be more than willing to show my papers for America.
That said, Americans are not racist people. We embrace people of all religions and races. That’s what we’ve built our country around. We just need to protect what we do have to make sure there is actually an America in the future.
Elizabeth Hardie
Senior in elementary education