Tom the Dancing Bug: Lucky Ducky in "Illegal Fowl"

truckeetown

To the posters denying racism above,

It sounds like you do indeed consider illegal immigration to be a big problem. What I have never understood is why people consider it such a huge problem in the first place.

I am not ragging or trying to just flame you in any way, it’s a good faith question because I really just don’t get it.

To me, immigration has far more upside to the US than downside. I don’t buy the crime argument, since study after study shows immigrants do crimes at about the same rate as citizens (if you leave out the circular argument about being here illegally). They bring in either valuable skills or, yes, cheap labor that citizens don’t seem to want to do much anymore. As our population ages, which it will, immigration brings in young, productive people.

As far as sucking up resources, being productive, they contribute way more than they consume.
A friend of mine here (legally) from Canada has an idea. She thinks that all immigrants should hold a 1-week general strike next May Day – no work. Let’s see how the US economy likes that!

Culturally, I don’t really see the downside either. American culture has already changed again and again, both from within, but mainly from wave after wave of immigrants. What exactly are immigration opponents trying to prevent from happening culturally? So is change bad? Are you sad that we don’t live in a Puritan theocracy starving to death every winter? Doesn’t one of our greatest national symbols, the Statue of Liberty, explicitly invite the poor and unwashed to come to us??

Can you help clue me in as to why it’s such a big deal that we need things like fences, National Guard, ICE concentration camps, and Stalinesque laws to deal with it? Because otherwise I don’t get it. Yes, we need to control immigration and make sure they contribute taxes, etc. like everybody else is supposed to do, but why the big freakout? It certainly smells like racism.

Notary Sojac

“why it’s such a big deal that we need things like fences, National Guard, ICE concentration camps, and Stalinesque laws to deal with it?”

Actually, you are right. We don’t need all that stuff to deal with it. If we did two simple things, no one would have any reason to suggest anything that might smack of the NKVD.

First: if any employer is found to have employed anyone who is not either a US citizen or a legal alien, that employer will be fined $100,000 per illegal employee per year, or fraction of a year. No exceptions.

Second: return to the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment. That is to say, you become a US citizen by birth only if at least one of your parents is a citizen on your birthday.

And as far as accusations of “racism” go, the word has been so cheapened by inappropriate use in the last thirty years that you may find that it no longer intimidates as it once did, even in those few cases where the term may still be vaild.

garnet

The cartoon is not one of Bolling’s most insightful creations. The comments are a bit worse, I’m afraid. In denouncing other people’s perceived prejudice, let’s not jump to any conclusions ourselves, right?
Here’s what the Arizona law says. It makes it a misdemeanor for an alien (non-U.S. citizen) to be in Arizona without carrying ID which federal law already requires them to carry: a valid driver’s license or Arizona non-operating ID license, a tribal ID/enrollment card or some kind of federal, state or local government-issued ID. In this, it’s just setting up local police as the enforcement arm of national rules that the feds aren’t seen to be enforcing very efficiently. If you want to argue that local cops are not the ideal people to do this job, you’ll find lots of agreement across the political spectrum, but Arizonans (a large majority of whom support the law) seem to feel that this is their best option right now.
The law also has a couple of safeguards against arbitrary use — for one thing it says that ID can only be requested after a “lawful stop, detention or arrest” by police, which would require the cops’ actions to have demonstrable cause. But if folks want to scream “racism,” I fear such nuances are unlikely to deter them.

dculberson

“ID can only be requested after a “lawful stop, detention or arrest” by police”

I believe the threshold for what constitutes a “lawful stop” is incredibly low.
- grimc
  
  Here’s what an Arizona police chief thinks:
  
  “Dupnik had harsh words for anyone who thinks SB 1070 will not lead to racial profiling. â€œIf I tell my people to go out and look for A, B, and C, theyâ€™re going to do it. Theyâ€™ll find some flimsy excuse like a tail light thatâ€™s not working as a basis for a stop, which is a bunch of baloney.â€œ”
  
  He thinks the law is “racist” and “disgusting” and says he won’t be enforcing it. But what does he know?
Anonymous

Garnet, you make a valid point, but I think the issue in contention is how effective those safeguards are going to be. If I’m not mistaken (and I could very well be) those safeguards didn’t even exist until there was a public outcry.

I don’t believe that all immigration related concerns are founded on racial prejudice, but I do think a great deal of it is based on perceived problems rather than actual ones.
Sketch V

Thank you.

Anonymous

Lucky Ducky should move to Arizona. A new law soon to take effect there prohibits police from stopping someone on suspicion of being an illegal alien solely on the basis of race–or in this case species. What a pity people in the other 49 states and the District of Columbia don’t have this protection under state law.

historyman68

I think the concern is that in our horrible job market right now, there are illegal aliens who are working for cheaper than citizens can afford to, because it’s not “on the books”. At the same time, they’re using public resources (hospitals, roads, etc) and not being taxed because they’re being paid “under the table”.

The argument that they’re doing jobs citizens “don’t want to do” kind of falls apart when we have as high an unemployment rate as we do. If my options were to be unemployed and starve or work as a janitor, gardener, etc, you bet I’d take that job.

Many of these comments aren’t distinguishing legal from illegal immigration; I don’t know how anyone could convincingly argue against legal immigration – we have a system set in place to handle legal immigration and immigrants, and a process to citizenship. The problem is that illegal immigrants bypass that system entirely – the most damage they do is to legal immigrants who are following the rules.

There is also the argument that we are perpetuating Mexico’s exploitation of their own citizens. As long as they know that their surplus population will continue to flow into the US, they can continue to disenfranchise their own people and delay reform.

Again, these are arguments I’ve heard against illegal immigration – I don’t feel that I personally have enough information to submit any of these as my own opinion, but these arguments are at least worth looking into. While there are undoubtedly some racists, I think it’s possible to be against illegal immigration for the reasons listed above and not for irrational race-based ones.

And it’s also possible to be against illegal immigration while also recognizing the humanity of illegal immigrants, recognizing that they’re stuck in a tough situation with few options- and this new Arizona law seems to ignore that fact. A good law would balance the good of the country and the good of helping individuals – while also not violating civil liberties.

qazwart

As SketchV ranted:

> But you fail to state that all those previous immigrants, Mexicans included, all
> did what? They assimilated to the American ways and laws, therefore contributing
> to our society as AMERICANS. They did not flaunt there illegality and abuse the
> system while waving the flags of their “homeland”.

What? People waving flags of other countries? UNHEARD OF!

In about two weeks, my children, all born in the Good ol’ U.S.A, will be going to a Salute to Israel Day Parade. In that parade, they’ll be waving flags of Israel. Are they no longer U.S. citizens? Are they not assimilating? Are they destroying our country?

By the way, they’re marching with their Boy Scout troop.

Come down and see all the Irish flags being waved at the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Come down to Little Italy and see all the Italian flags being waved around during their street fairs. Are these people unAmerican too? Are they “refusing to assimilate”?

Are you really upset because people are proud of their heritage and wave the flags of their old countries as part of the celebration of that heritage? I hope you aren’t from the South and see all those old Confederate banners. Talk about “not assimilating”. Heck, didn’t they fight a war against us? Or, is that particular one okay?

My grandmother came to this country and spoke Yiddish because they apparently didn’t speak English from where she came from in Russia. No one asked her if she “wanted to assimilate”. No one asked her if she was taking a job away from an American. No one asked her if she had a college degree. All they said was “You want a job? Here’s a job as a milliner.

Her daughter spoke English. Her daughter, my mother, went to school and got a college degree. Her daughter, my mother married a man whose grandfather came to the U.S. and never spoke a word of English.

They came from Germany and Russia. They came here because they were told in their country they weren’t Germans or Russians. They came here, and the minute they stepped on the shore, they became Americans. Poland disappeared from the world for over 200 years, yet people thought of themselves not as Russians, but Poles. Those very same people took one step on our shores, and they’re Americans. That’s the greatness of our country.

My Father-in-Law family lived in what is now Iraq for over 2000 years. Yet, in 1952, the Iraqi government didn’t think he was Iraqi. He came here, started a business and hired a whole bunch of people. He made sure his daughter, my wife, got an education he never had.

From those “foreigners” who are very proud of their heritage are three fine American boys. They’ve volunteered in the first aid squad. They’ve helped other children in school. They’ve collected food and clothing for those who are less fortunate. They’ve done well in school, never did drugs, and somehow managed not to fall into a life of crime. They are exemplary citizens and I think we should all be proud that we have such great Americans.

What are you so upset about? Why the ranting? People come here not speaking English? They may never learn English because it’s hard to learn a new language, but they make sure their children do. These people come here because they are willing to work. They start businesses, they hire other people. They build up our economy.

You apparently have never talked to someone who was an immigrant — “illegal” or not. They are the most patriotic Americans you’ll ever meet. They love this country. They love the fact that this country is giving them a chance to prove themselves. They want to become an American citizen just like you. They are teaching their children English. They are pushing their children through school. They want their children to live the American dream. They are Americans not by default, but by choice.

Yet, how can you be a proud American if you aren’t allowed to drive a car or get health insurance or hold a job? How can you send your kids to college, so they can be successful and pay taxes and help build this country up when you aren’t allowed to get student loans or attend a public college or in some states, graduate?

Yes, these people are changing America, but that’s the greatness of our country. We completely rebuild this country every 20 years. 225 years ago, this country was a gentocracy. You couldn’t vote if you didn’t have money, or were not a white male. When our founding fathers talked about protecting the minority, they were talking about protecting those with the money from those without. We had slavery. We were antibusiness because the ideal was to be a gentleman farmer with several dozen slaves who did the dirty work.

Yet, it changed. By the 1820s, almost all white males were allowed to vote much to the chagrin of the gentry who felt this ruined America. In the 1860s, we eliminated slavery over the objections of those who thought that people would forget “their place”. In the 1920s, we gave women the right to vote over the objections of those who felt that it would destroy the moral fabric of this country. In the 1960s, we extended equal rights to everyone over the objections of those who hated someone because they were different. None of this destroyed America. Instead, it made America greater and stronger.

We talk about original intentions with our Constitution. Did anyone of the people who signed that document intended that a Black man whose father was not a citizen of this country and whose wife is a decedent of slavery would be elected president?

I am sure if our founding fathers saw our country today, they’d be shocked. They never “intended” this. And, after that initial shock, they’d be proud of what this country has become. They always talked about America, that backwards, uncivilized land would someday become a beacon of light unto the world. And, now it is. Ask anyone in the streets of Africa or in the market stalls of Southeast Asia about America and they’ll all tell you how much it inspires them.

Every 20 years, we turn this country inside out. Today, we’re building a new foundation for the next generation. If someone wants to come here and help with that task, I’d say give them a shovel and a hearty welcome to their new home. They are, whether you like it or not, Americans.

Anonymous

“carry your papers around and show the cops when they ask for it?”

anyone who thinks this is acceptable is nuts.

Dewi Morgan

“anyone who thinks this is acceptable is nuts.”

One of the reasons I want to get out of the UK before they bring in that nonsense.

But even that is more acceptable than “only some subset must carry papers”. Otherwise, anyone at all can just say “I’m a US citizen. I don’t need papers.” And since US citizens don’t need to be able to prove that, the policeman has to accept their word and let them on their way.

If I were a policeman given this task, I’d just camp out in hotel lobbies and stop anyone carrying a travel guide, suitcase or a camera.
Best chance of catching a non-citizen without papers, who doesn’t understand that stupid loophole.

I have been told that the taxes of the immigrants (illegal and otherwise) are what’s keeping the country afloat as the baby boomers hit retirement age. Politicians know this well, because they have access to all that financial data: this is why the border is so porus, and yet it is so hard to become a citizen, or even a legal alien resident (trust me, I’ve been working on it for about five years, even though I’m married to an American lady).

Illegal aliens don’t parasite off social security, as they don’t have SSIDs, but they still have to pay taxes unless they are paid under the table in cash.

Legal aliens are still not allowed to parasite off social security, and their “sponsor” is responsible for ensuring that, and signs an agreement to support them instead. With a work permit, their work is known, so they are *forced* to pay their taxes.

So on the face of it, allowing the illegals to more easily transition to legals seems the best way to get more taxes out of them and make them more trackable. But I think they don’t make it easy because legals can, after five years, then start trying to transition into citizens: and that’s not what’s wanted.

What’s wanted is a large heap of taxpaying workers who will NOT be a burden on social security as they age. Illegals fill this role best.

Despite the stereotype of minorities being the social security abusers, the biggest drain on social security is white American citizens.

And immigrants are paying for that, and bankrolling social projects like health care reform, even though they don’t get any of the advantages.

IamInnocent

Yup!

Bruce Arthurs

Also, the law gives citizens the right to sue law enforcement agencies if they feel the law isn’t being enforced stringently enough.

This puts law enforcement officers in a lose-lose position: If they ask a disproportionate number of legal Hispanic citizens and immigrants for proof of citizenship, they can be sued for civil rights violations. If they don’t ask for proof from a disproportionate number of Hispanic people, they can be sued by any member of the public who feels they aren’t doing their job.

If I was a police officer faced with this, the only way I’d see to avoid eventually getting sued would be to apply the law universally: Demand proof of citizenship from every person, at every stop, whether they’re brown, black, yellow or white.

As an Arizona resident, I’m hoping the law gets repealed. In the meantime, I’m tryin to spend my money, as much as I can, at Hispanic-owned businesses.

Anonymous

All I have to say on the matter is: No free movement of capital without the free movement of people!

Notary Sojac

I was ready to bitch about another politically correct post until I got to the last three panels.

Changes the whole tone. I agree we need to go after the employers of illegals, with a sledgehammer, rather than the illegals themselves.

Phikus

Nice lampoon, Ruben!

Racism no longer thinly veiled is racism.

Maybe if we just have a sombrero patch sewed into all their clothing…

Anonymous

@#2 can you explain what you meant by politically correct? are you implying the author wouldn’t necessarily believe it, was just doing so as some kind of community service? perhaps that it was something that he was pressured into doing?

I always though ‘politically correct’ was a term to describe censoring yourself to ensure not to cause offence. surely this wouldn’t be an adequate trait for a satirist.

sing it, baby

I love Lucky Ducky.

Anonymous

Maybe we need to drop the idea that there is any such thing as an “illegal” altogether.

Ito Kagehisa

Garnet, nice post. It’s one of very few defending the law that makes any valid points (although I don’t agree, personally, you have a solid argument).

But I say screw passports and immigration laws. They are evil and do nothing except drive human progress backwards. Get rid of them. They are tools of oppression and only serve to destroy freedom. Any restriction whatsoever of the right of honest, peaceful humans to “vote with their feet” is morally wrong. Prosecute people for real crimes, not for speaking the wrong language or crossing imaginary lines in order to escape poverty and oppression or to feed their families.

===The New Colossus===

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
–Emma Lazarus, 1883

Phikus

I saw a bumper sticker just yesterday that made me smile: WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS. I started thinking: wait, except native Americans, but you know, they are right. At one point, even they came across a land bridge from Asia. It is a sad irony that those who are being targeted with this new racist law are descendants of the indigenous peoples who lived here for thousands of years before Europeans came over, importing their idea of land ownership and breaking every treaty they made with these people. Is it any wonder they do not respect our laws in respect to keeping them out of these same areas?

Brainspore: I love you, man!

Brainspore

Brainspore: I love you, man!

I’m already married, but thanks!
- Phikus
  
  I would hope that still leaves room for bromance. ;D
  - Brainspore
    
    Tell you what, next time you’e in San Francisco I’ll buy you a taco.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Who eats tacos in SF? It’s a burrito culture.
    - Brainspore
      
      Fine, but no extra guacamole. I’m not made of money!
    - Phikus
      
      I’m down! Same goes for Austin (and we have damn good tacos & burritos here.) =D
      
      Ill Lich: Nailed it on the head, as usual. Sad that you have to even think it through for some folks.

Anonymous

I’m just waiting to hear a report about an elderly Mexican couple visiting Arizona for their daughter’s wedding, and who didn’t have their “papers” handy when some gung-ho cop yanks them off the highway and hustles them off to a deportation facility. Two or three of those and this bullshit law will go the way of Prohibition and “Freedom Fries”.

Sketch V

LOL. I love how people turn a issue of legality into racism. So stupid. But any hype will do to cloud the issue.

Neon Tooth

So what’s it like to be born yesterday?
- Sketch V
  
  Where do you live? Is it in AZ or CA or TX? Maybe consider where you were born.
  - Neon Tooth
    
    I live in the city with the second largest Mexican population in the U.S. I’m also mistaken for Latino daily (native american background )so I should probably stay the hell out of Arizona, lest I have to show my papers to some cop. Because, we all know cops have no biases right?
  - Brainspore
    
    Maybe you could help me out- I was born and raised in CA (which, like AZ, was once part of Mexico and still has a large population of Mexican-Americans) but I never learned how to tell which people are “illegal” just by looking at them. Do you have any insights on how to do this without resorting to racial profiling?
    - Sketch V
      
      Wll, gss wht, w hv prblm hr(C) cn’t hlp t f t’s Mxcns csng th prblm. wld b jst s pssd f t ws Cndns bt t’s nt, t’s Mxcns. nd ys hv prtty gd d wh s hr llglly by sght. dn’t thnk th gys hngng rnd th hm dpt r dng s bcs f thr lgl stts. r th fllws slpng n my frnt lwn wh dn’t spk wrd f nglsh r th grp f drnks n th lly bhnd my ffc wh smsh ll th wndws mght b gd plc t strt. Y s, dn’t hv t spt thm by thr clr, jst thr ctns,
    - Brainspore
      
      If an officer catches someone doing something illegal (such as trespassing, public intoxication or vandalism) they can be arrested regardless of their suspected immigration status. It’s also perfectly legal to check the immigration status of someone who has already been arrested on other charges. So why on earth do we need a new law that permits a large group of people to be hassled based on their appearance instead of their actions?
    - grimc
      
      No, “we” don’t have a problem here in CA. Sounds like you just live in a shitty neighborhood.
bpratt

The issue being referenced here is the law in AZ under which being brown is now probable cause for police to bother people, because many illegals are brown people. Sounds racist to me.
- Anonymous
  
  You don’t think in Arizona there aren’t police officers of Mexican descent? You’d be wrong if you think that.
Christovir

LOL. I love how people turn a issue of legality into racism. So stupid. But any hype will do to cloud the issue.

And I love the enormity and inevitability of human self-deception, the truly tremendous extent of rationalization that people will undertake to avoid taking a long hard look at themselves in the mirror and seeing what lies inside, and understand the motives of their petty hatreds.

Maybe “love” isn’t the right word. Actually, “it makes me weep for all my brothers and sisters” is more like it.
ill lich

Let’s say I’m an illegal immigrant from Poland or Ukraine or Bulgaria, with blond hair, do you think the cops in Arizona will consider me suspicious and ask for ID, I would be just as illegal as any Mexican? It will only be a matter of time before anyone Hispanic-looking gets accosted by cops in AZ, including all the born-and-raised-here Latino citizens. There is indeed a problem with illegal immigration, but I don’t see this law fixing the problem, just creating a new problem.
- Sketch V
  
  Yeah because we are having a problem with those countries flooding our connected border? Makes sense…
  - ill lich
    
    The point isn’t about “flooding our connected border”, the point is the law targets a particular group of people based on their appearance. I could have been born and lived in Arizona my whole life, but if I am of Latino heritage I will be stopped and questioned as if I am an illegal. For every illegal they manage to round up with this new law they will harass as many (if not more) completely legal citizens whose only “crime” is being brown. You might think it’s a valid trade off, until YOU are the one being questioned by the cops over and over again simply for walking down the street.
    - dainel
      
      ill lich, if you’re not an illegal, how hard can it be to carry your papers around and show the cops when they ask for it? But really, if they hassle you enough, maybe you’ll leave and go to another state. Maybe even leave the country all together.
      
      I wonder how many people were thinking that, silently celebrating the new law.
      
      America for the Americans. All those mexicans should go back to Mexico. As well as the germans. And the irish. And the english. And the scots. And didn’t the indians came across the Bering?
    - ill lich
      
      I don’t like getting stopped by the police, and I doubt anybody likes it. We’ve all seen videos of cops overstepping their bounds, pulling out the taser simply because it’s late in their shift and they want to go home, or because of problems at home, or problems from their own childhood. . . .
      
      Think back to the last time you got stopped for speeding or running a stop sign, was it pleasant? Now think about it happening because of something you can’t really change: your appearance. Then think about it happening regularly.
      
      It doesn’t matter how easy it is to carry around ID, it’s just as easy for the cops to stop you, and they will if they don’t happen to recognize you as the same guy they stopped yesterday.
      
      I’m willing to believe the law is not intended to be racist, but it comes off as racist when enforced. It reminds me of poll tax laws from the Jim Crow south: there was nothing in the law that said it was directed at blacks, but the effect was to keep blacks from voting.
      
      The old saying “it’s better for one hundred guilty men to go free than one innocent man to go to jail”– would that apply here? How many law abiding citizens with “suspicious looking skin” will get stopped and questioned before Arizona realizes how half-assed this law is? “Reasonable suspicion?” Boy, that’s really clear.
snakedart

The United States has a long and storied history of denigrating and painting as subhuman the last bunch of immigrants (legal, voluntary, or otherwise) off the boat. Blacks, the Irish, Germans, Italians, Eastern Europeans, Asians, Hispanics … all have been “the problem”, despite contributing to the economic and social fabric of this country. And, at the root, these complaints have always been about fear of “the other”. In other words, racism. Always.
- Sketch V
  
  But you fail to state that all those previous immigrants, Mexicans included, all did what? They assimilated to the American ways and laws, therefore contributing to our society as AMERICANS. They did not flaunt there illegality and abuse the system while waving the flags of their “homeland”. We have a drastic problem that requires drastic measures that might offend the fantasy land that a lot of people live in.
  I have no “Fear” of the “Other”. This isn’t the dark ages.The laws that others have followed for generations are being broken in mass. End of story.
  And No,we all can’t get along. We are humans, beautiful beasts at best.
  - snakedart
    
    Like many who support the Arizona legislation, you trumpet your cause by railing against supposed supporters of illegal immigration, which is a straw man. You’ll find the percentage of people who actually support illegal immigration to be absurdly small. The vast majority of Americans agree with you that illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be solved. Your deflecting the issue does not win you any points in this debate.
    
    What is so egregious about this new law is that it necessarily targets legal immigrants and American citizens as well. By requiring them, at the whim of law enforcement, to prove their citizenship, we are violating civil rights provided to them under the 4th Amendment. And that the legal citizens who will be targeted are, necessarily, Hispanic, makes this an issue of racial profiling.
    
    I agree with you that we need to fix the problem of immigration. But I can’t agree with your claim that we need to violate the rights of Americans to do it.
    - Sketch V
      
      I think you missed my initial point. As soon as you say anything these days about illegal immigration , you are instantly labeled a racist. I didn’t think anyone was stupid enough to be for illegal immigration so I don’t even consider those supporters.
      We are coming to a head in some states and it’s going to get even uglier. I think people are jumping to the conclusion that the AZ police are going to act like the Gestapo and randomly stop anyone they want. I think it’s more a case that you have an offender and now you have a tool to deal with their illegal status that they did not have before. I hardly doubt that the entire state of AZ is comprised of nothing but Nazis and Klan members.
    - truckeetown
      
      What’s so stupid about it? WHY is it such a big problem? Why not have open borders? Terrorists maybe? They get in anyway. Please explain WHY this is such a big deal!
    - snakedart
      
      I think people are jumping to the conclusion that the AZ police are going to act like the Gestapo and randomly stop anyone they want.
      
      The simple fact is that this new law does give AZ police the authority to randomly stop anyone they want, under the guise of “reasonable suspicion”. Whether you believe this new authority will be abused is irrelevant — the possibility is there. And, despite your assertion that suspected behavior will be the mitigating factor, you can’t reasonably claim that anyone who is not Hispanic will be stopped for such suspicious behavior.
      
      This may not be armband- and white sheet-wearing, overt bigotry, but a law that targets one segment of the population based on color of skin or country of origin is dictionary-definition racism. And that’s not how we do business here in the U.S.
      
      As others have pointed out, police already had the power to check the immigration status of those under investigation of a crime. That you don’t seem troubled by the fact that, in casting this wider net, police may ensnare innocent Americans, is disappointing.
    - Ito Kagehisa
      
      Sketch V: You said “I think you missed my initial point. As soon as you say anything these days about illegal immigration, you are instantly labeled a racist.”
      
      When you lay down with dogs, son, you get up with fleas. If you don’t want to be labeled a racist stop talking like one.
      
      You don’t need anti-immigration laws to keep people from smashing windows or sleeping on your lawn. But that’s exactly the bullshit every white racist spouts! You are actively identifying yourself as part of their group in other people’s minds, and you are effectively joining their ranks when you help these people by promoting their ideas and ideals.
      
      You also said “We are coming to a head in some states and it’s going to get even uglier.”
      
      I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this same line from the RaHoWa clowns. You are again self-identifying as a racist by using their threatening language. If we don’t hit them first brown people will rape our women and kill our babies, yawn, yawn, heard it before.
  - dculberson
    
    Every wave of immigrants follows a predictable pattern. The first generation doesn’t assimilate much, at all, and doesn’t necessarily learn the language of their new home. The second generation assimilates almost completely and definitely learns the language. I’ve never met a second generation US citizen from any country that didn’t speak English; have you?
    
    There were plenty of first generation German immigrants that waved the German flag and didn’t speak English. Yet somehow the US survived and was stronger for their presence (and particularly for the presence of their children).
  - Anonymous
    
    Assimilated? Have you been to Crown Heights? Or Devon Ave, or Fitchburg, Mass? Where is this effortless assimilation that the ‘other’ you reference isn’t doing? My family came to this country in 1630, but my father was the first person who didn’t speak french as a primary language. What’s assimilative about that?
    
    2050′s going to be a real bitch for you, isn’t it?

Anonymous

@Sketch V-

I do not blame you, sir; nay, how could I, when I know that this argument is my fault? Your straw-man arguments and various other rhetorical fallacies; the blame is not yours, sir, but mine! Many is the afternoon I have had words while taking tea with M. Darcy about whether ’tis the Letter & Practicality of the Law, or the probable Ethical Lacunae of that Law, is the more important thing to consider.

He too, was forced into your arguments, holding, as he does, that the Letter of the Law is above Compromise or Change to Ameliorate its Unfortunate Implications, and, though I should not wish to distort the words of your penning, even above the noble Art of Questioning; despite that he should likely think otherwise, if ’twere presented as such in the abstract; and, like you, he was drawn into that Dire Plight by my own vanity. As I have said: the fault lies not with you, sir, but upon my own shoulders!

Why, the truth is such that many is the time I have heard him say that the laws mote Protect the Happy Citizens of our own sweet Country! O gods! That it should be another way, that I had never made, this foolish, vain decision regarding my own coiffure. For I have seen how he, and you, too, sir, though you may deny it, have jealously admired the Raptorial Splendor of my Current Mayne, gazing upon its Proud Plumage! Curse my love of Dandyish Fashion!

O, sir, it is to say, with no further embellishment or artifice, to put it plainly, to describe with full bluntness and simplicity: it is with great regret that I do inform you that our disagreement is merely due to the fact that My Hair ‘Tis a Bird, and perforce, your argument is invalid!

With the Utmost in Sincerity and Well-Wishes,
The Gentleman Dandy

JonStewartMill

The law requires police to hassle people just for looking like they might be foreigners. How is that not racist?

Anonymous

Use an existing law already on the books to handle employers that hire illegal immigrants. Charge them with slave trading.

stanleyk

doesn’t seem like anyone has answered truckeetown’s question – Notary Sojac used it as an excuse to say some stuff, but didn’t answer it. I’m curious…for both supporters and detractors of the AZ law…if you think (illegal) immigration from Mexico is a problem, why? What exactly are the problems? Maybe that can lead to a more illuminated conversation about what the appropriate solutions might be.

Glenn Fleishman

I’m enjoying the full sized cartoon here instead of the silly reduced sizes used by other sites to comics, as if it cost more ink to run it larger. Thanks, BB & Bolling!

das memsen

Hey Ruben- I’ve been reading your stuff since the early 90′s, bought that TTDB comic book with the Mad#1 parody cover, etc. Unlike so many other alternative-weekly cartoonists I could name, your work has not lost any of its edge nor wit. Congratulations, old man! I remain a true fan.

Anonymous

How unrealistic! The confessing fowl is obviously Canadian, both by his plumage and his inability to resist the demands of authority. Besides, he’s way too polite.

Yeah, Canadian. Grrrr. This is all a plot by a sinister cabal in Calgary to invade us! While we keep our gaze fixed on the Rio Grande, the Canucks are gonna run right over us. We’re doomed!!!

stanleyk

I watched the episode of “30 Days” (Morgan Spurlock’s show) yesterday where the raving Minute Man goes to live with a family of undocumented people for a month. It was great, I highly recommend it. And for those who would dismiss it as liberal propaganda…the Minute Man guy got a lot of camera time explaining his philosophy. I think there was a noticeable Point of View to the show, but I don’t think the show was slanted–I think it’s all down to reality’s “well-known liberal bias.”

UncaScrooge

If only we could change the following phrase:

“They come here to do the work White People are too lazy to do.”

to:

“They get hired by people too cheap to pay minimum wage.”

If only we could change the following term:

“Illegal Alien”

to:

“Illegal to hire for any job whatsoever without incurring severe financial penalties and/or incarceration.”

I realize that drying up work for undocumented immigrants will raise the prices of goods and services in this country. Bring it on.

Tom the Dancing Bug: Lucky Ducky in "Illegal Fowl"

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