Arizona's Immigrant Retirbution Law

James Chambers (Letter, July 6) seems to think that supporting Arizona’s anti-immigrant law will win him votes.  I would hope that someone who supports legalizing discrimination would not gain public office.  The Arizona law requires police officers to arrest people they suspect of being illegal immigrants, but how they should arrive at that suspicion is not clear. White people in nice cars who happen to have forgotten their license will probably not end up at the jail getting fingerprinted.

The people frustrated over "illegals" may not realize that there really is no legal way for most aspiring immigrants from countries like Mexico to enter, especially if they are low-wage workers.  The very few visas and green cards offered are spoken for decades in advance. There is no line for getting legal papers no matter how many years you wait.  That’s why people keep saying the immigration system is “broken”. 

They also may not realize that US trade laws such as NAFTA, which favor US subsidized agriculture, have led to over a million Mexican farmers losing their land.  Our own trade policies are creating the flow of poor people seeking work.  They may also not realize that the Arizona law itself is illegal because it’s constitutionally the role of the federal government to regulate immigration.

I, for one, am proud when our city officials put Durham on the map for supporting human rights.  We join Minneapolis-St Paul, New York, Milwaukee, Washington, DC, Boulder, CO, Los Angeles, Austin and others.