For weeks liberals (and the open borders crowd) have suggested that the majority of the Arizona legislature (and the overwhelming majority of the people of Arizona who support them) are racist because they passed a law allowing local police to ID illegal aliens (as a secondary violation mind you). They've been led by the usual suspects, from the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world, to congressional Democrats and Barack Obama himself.

But that was those rubes out in Arizona.  Part of fly-over country so disdained by liberals and the media.

Now the "racism" has spread to (gasp!) Massachusetts!

With one lawmaker citing President Lincoln's respect for the rule of law, the Massachusetts Senate passed a far-reaching crackdown this afternoon on illegal immigrants and those who would hire them, going further, senators said, than any immigration bill proposed over the past five years. ...

The measure, which passed on a 28-10 vote as an amendment to the budget, would bar the state from doing business with any company found to break federal laws barring illegal immigrant hiring. It would also toughen penalties for creating or using fake identification documents, and explicitly deny in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants.

The amendment would also require the state’s public health insurance program to verify residency through the Department of Homeland Security, and would require the state to give legal residents priority for subsidized housing. ...

If you needed any further evidence that the world is upside-down when it comes to US immigration law, take a look at this:

An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home. ...

Trial continues Monday in the federal lawsuit, which seeks $32 million in actual and punitive damages for civil rights violations, the infliction of emotional distress and other crimes. Also named are Mr. Barnett's wife, Barbara, his brother, Donald, and Larry Dever, sheriff in Cochise County, Ariz., where the Barnetts live. The civil trial is expected to continue until Friday. ...

The article goes on to point out that Barnett has rounded up over 12,000 (yes, you read that right) illegal aliens on his property since 1998.

Helping us get to this point of insanity is, you guessed it, a federal judge.  In this case, Judge John Roll, who rejected a motion by Barnett's attorney's to throw the case out because, you know, the plantiffs are ILLEGALS, lacking the rights of US citizens.  read more »

Imagecolumn: 

In the wake of Arizona’s passage of its new immigration enforcement law, the inflamed, uninformed and irresponsible rhetoric coming from the open-borders crowd and supposedly respectable politicians who should know better seems to have grown by the day.

From the NY Times to the Washington Post to Barack Obama himself, there has been an avalanche of gross mischaracterizations of the law, inferring that it would allow police to simply stop anyone who “looks different” on the street and demand to “see their papers”.

The use of this phrase is no accident, but an intentional reference to authoritarian (and usually socialist) countries where the police have the right to stop anyone and demand, “Let me see your papers”.  It is at least somewhat comical, given that most of the people who are complaining the loudest about Arizona’s new law have recognizable tendencies towards socialism, the most high profile example being Obama himself.  read more »