Proving citizenship

Editor, The Times:

Do I understand that if I were driving in Arizona and was stopped for having a brake light out or some other minor infraction and I “looked” Mexican, I would be arrested because I do not carry my birth certificate with me? [“Arizona law likely to clear hurdle,” page one, April 26.]

I am not sure I could find my birth certificate. What could I use to prove citizenship? Social Security numbers can be forged. Driver’s licenses can be obtained. If retired and not employed, would a bank account and an address be enough? I am not sure I could prove citizenship.

It seems to me either the Arizona police will have to take almost anything as proof of citizenship or they will start deporting U.S. citizens.

— Dean Shoemaker, Kent

Enforce immigration laws

This election season will be conducive to immigration protests, but let’s not let them rewrite history.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has taken a strong stance against amnesty, and his potential running mate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, is formulating a plan to compete with the DREAM Act.

Rubio seems to favor a path to permanent status starting with nonimmigrant visas, but he doesn’t support full citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

Predicting how the Supreme Court will rule is tricky, but most aficionados believe they will uphold the constitutionality of Arizona’s immigration law.

Protesters must be dusting off their placards.

Since most of us are ultimately immigrants, we are generally sympathetic to protesters proclaiming: “We are all immigrants.” But in the caldron of aggrieved immigration activists, more fiery slogans will be unfurled, like the infamous: “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.”

That’s questionable: even if Manifest Destiny hadn’t projected our great experiment in democracy from sea to shining sea, immigrants from the south would just change their direction a bit to cross a different border to the land of opportunity.

Let’s be clear: Being an American is less about borders than a deeply embedded philosophy that embraces freedom, opportunity, individualism and entrepreneurial drive.

The thread of freedom weaves together our great American tapestry of ethnicities and cultures. By enforcing immigration laws, we can preserve our great motto: E Pluribus Unum — out of many, one.

— Noel S. Williams, Lakewood

Local case

I am responding to the article “Duvall farm charged in illegal hiring.”[NWFriday, April 20.] What the article doesn’t tell it’s readers is that all the illegal immigrants themselves are free to go obtain an illegal job elsewhere. They will not be detained or arrested, even if they have been using the stolen identities of innocent citizens.

This is a failure for the federal government.

— Julie Marker, San Diego