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Originally Posted by Sean

What makes it REALLY scary is that 52% of Arizona residents apparently think the immigration bill is a good idea, even though over 80% acknowledge that "its very or somewhat likely that the new law will lead to police officers detaining people of certain racial or ethnic groups more frequently than other racial or ethnic groups."

Maybe the reason why you think it's so "scary" is because you don't live in Arizona, so you can't really understand what's going on there. I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything but I have lived in Tuscon a few years and have travelled to Mexico five times in the last two years, spending nearly three months there. It's easy for liberals (no offense, but it's only liberals I've seen do this) to paint this as an excuse for racism and little else, and while I admit the bill is undoubtably going to lead to some racial profiling, it's not like Arizona as is a state that hates Mexican people. Hell, half the police I saw while I was there were Latinos. The reason this bill was passed is pretty much a direct result of what's going on in Mexico. You really can't overestimate the amount of power the drug lords have there or the extent of the drug violence that goes on. They are not exactly acting discretely there. It's pretty well-known that most of the Mexican politicians are working with them - unlike America, they barely even try to cover that up. The police in particular are pretty much all corrupt. It's not their fault - either you run protection or your family gets killed...easy choice. I was in Merida, Yucatan for a month when the governor had basically declared "war" on the drug dealers, filling the streets with heavily (like, ridiculously heavily) armed police vehicles ready to lay waste to an entire city block if need be (completely unnecessary, but still a striking image). The drug dealers' reponse? They threatened to kidnap 50 people from a graduation party I was at - sure enough it was over by 9 PM (when they typically go until the sun rises). They threatened to kidnap people from nightclubs, and soon there was almost NO nightlife in the city whatsoever. 90% of these were just empty threats, but some people, mostly college students, were kidnapped, held for ransom, then brutally murdered. Hell, just look up the news coming out of Juarez, where innocent people are literally killed every day thanks to stupid, drug-related violence.
Okay so that's Mexico, but some of that spills over into border states, especially Arizona. It's not as severe, but last I heard they were averaging one kidnapping per day, with public threats occuring somewhat frequently. It's not the legal US Citizens that are doing this. A lot of people think that the illegals in border states were mostly poor dudes trying to make a better life - a drain on our tax system but not really a threat. The truth is there is a lot of drug-related violence there which is overwhelmingly linked to the illegals. I'm not an expert on this bill but I've known for years that border states needed to do SOMETHING about this. That's why the (slight) majority is in favor of this. There's no way this would pass in a place like Ohio. Whether or not the bill is a good one, I don't really know, but yeah if I knew someone who was kidnapped and murdered I'd support anything that would at least try to curb the problem. The liberal point of view seems to be "so immigrants will be out on a family dinner, the police will investigate them because they look foreign, lock them up because they won't have a passport, and try to deport them". There is no way this is going to create a new wave of racial profiling from officers who enjoy hasseling innocent foreign people. It's just a step to try to curb something that is a REAL problem in the South, something that sadly doesn't get a fraction of the news coverage this new bill has.