21st Century Frontier Justice in Arizona

Arizona is a place where triple-digit temperatures during the summer, much like below-zero readings in Minnesota during the winter, tend to keep the riffraff out.  Now the state that gave us presidential candidates Barry Goldwater and John McCain wants to keep its eye out for the ones they consider riffraff, particulary if they are the wrong color.

A new immigration enforcement law, whic hwas signed by Republican Governor Jan Brewer, will soon require police to, among other things, check those of Hispanic descent for documents that prove they are legal residents of the state.

The law is intended to help stem the tide of illegal immigrants who keep flooding in from Mexico despite border patrols, walls and barbed wire.  State officials and residents are also worried that reports of drug-related violence from across the border might spill over and turn Phoenix and Tucson into the next Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

But what it also does is nothing short of racial profiling for the thousands of Latinos who already live and work in Arizona legally.  Many of them came to the United States to get away from the kind of treatment they used to face where they came from.

Illegal immigration is a nationwide problem that demands workable solutions, not heavy-handed measures.  But you're not going to see Washington do anything about it, especially in an election year.  It's the proverbial third rail--touch this issue and your political career dies.  So states like Arizona figured they needed to do something on their own.

The reaction to the new law, which won't go into effect until 90 days after the state's legislature adjourns for the year, will not only create many a court challenge--possibly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court--but it also threatens to make Arizona's economy become as dry as the desert.  The tourism industry, conventions and the 2011 Major League Baseball All Star Game may be affected.  Oh, and so are the chances of keeping the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes hockey team from going elsewhere.

Arizona is going to pay a big price for turning into a police state, just to keep a few undocumented workers and drug smugglers from crossing the border.  But if it shocks the federal government into finally passing meaningful legislation aimed at dealing with the problem, then what does that say about us?