Wonder why visitors might disappear from Arizona?

We don’t want to engage in generalizations about a certain Western state.

But one cannot deny it can get pretty hot out in a lot of the dry, desert areas of  Arizona. Some may say don’t judge a book by its cover. Or, as Jimmy Buffett once said, “Don’t try to describe a KISS concert if you’ve never seen one.” Thus, I will attest that I spent the night in Tucson once on a day in which the high had been 115 degrees. Okay, I have also seen 115 degree temperatures in Western Australia and even 112 in Waco, Texas, during one unbearable summer. So what am I getting at?

Well, maybe it is the scorching heat and exposure to the heat over long periods of time that has caused some of Arizona’s lawmakers to perhaps bake their brains.

I speak of the law passed in Arizona that would require police to ask of anyone they stop the proof of their immigration status. Those who do not have proof of citizenship would be charged with a crime and could be detained if suspected of being in the country illegally. Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill just a short while ago, according to CNN.

Well, what is wrong with this if it will help slow down illegal immigration, which is acknowledged as a huge problem in this border state? It is kind of hard to find a starting point as to why this is a really bad idea.

First off, this will be challenged if it becomes law. It should be found unconstitutional on grounds of illegal search and seizure, among other reasons. But one never knows what will happen with the crazy side of the Supreme Court and whomever turns out to be the swing vote. Actually, one never  knows what the whole bunch will do in the first place.

Such a law is not only ripe for racial profiling, it practically requires such actions. Maybe you think it is okay to stop  — willy-nilly — brown-skinned people if it helps weed out illegal aliens. I don’t think that is neither fair nor a good idea. But what if it leads to stopping, detaining and arresting for lack of proof of citizenship if that person with dark skin is an American? Let’s say an American hero. A veteran. A firefighter. What if it’s your grandma, su abuela? What if it’s your daughter? What if it’s my daughter, who is of Hispanic descent, and whose experience in Mexico has amounted to maybe Cancun during spring break?

Or, what if the police stop you?  Yes you, white bread? Hey, cops here along the border know that all “Mexicans” aren’t brown. Some are white with blond hair and blue eyes. While they are at it, why don’t they just go ahead and arrest me? I am white, fair-skinned, but I could be some kind of Eurotrash, Irish terrorist or some old bald-headed American ex-Hippie who decided to become a friend of Mohammed. It goes to show you never can tell.

The Arizona immigration law is so knee-jerk that if  you were standing on the side of some tall mountain in Arizona, chances are you would be holding on to each leg as they extend outward while  you go flying toward a Roadrunner-like ending. The only difference would be the Roadrunner living to fight another day, while you …. well, not so much.

At one time, the type of folks who were elected to our state legislators were folks who were into “boosterism.” They were the ones who belonged to the local chamber of commerce, the Kiwanis Club, the Lions Club. These folks who got sent to do the people’s works wanted folks to come visit their communities and their states. They wanted people to spend money once they got there on lodging, food, tourist attractions, stores, hunting and fishing. Today, either lawmakers don’t care if anyone visits their state or cities or if they do, they are too stupid to realize that passing laws such as this anti-immigrant bill has so many opportunities for scaring away visitors that it is ridiculous.

Do Arizona lawmakers care about their state or local folks? They may think so by being hard-assed on the immigration issue, but they are going about it just as wrong as it can be done. Maybe when only militia-types or other wing-nuts wearing their bandoleers and all their guns show up, and the real tourists do not, will Arizona state fathers realize, oops, we may have misjudged things just a bit.