Un-American Arizona?

Mark Mardell|17:03 UK time, Thursday, 13 May 2010

Politicians from the City of the Angels have accused the state of Arizona of doing the devil's work, introducing Nazi-style laws. The conflict is of course about illegal immigration, in a state where new proposals are rubbing hard the old sore of racial discrimination.

The latest figures suggest nearly 11 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, with roughly seven million of them from Mexico. In Arizona, many white residents blame illegal Mexican immigrants for bringing the killings and kidnappings of the drug wars north to their state. When I was in Arizona recently, admittedly at a Sarah Palin rally, I found the concern outweighed any other among the audience.

The governor of Arizona has just signed into law a bill banning schools from teaching ethnic studies. This comes hard on the heels of a law that will force police to ask for proof of citizenship or legal residence from anyone they stop, if officers have reasonable suspicion they are in the country illegally. They could be detained if they don't have their papers.

Some say this inevitably leads to people who look Mexican being singled out: racial profiling. There was talk about boycotts before Los Angles, where 48% of the population is Hispanic, put its money where its mouth is. The Los Angeles measure only threatens roughly $8m worth of business, but it is a symbolic stand against a law that council members compared to Nazi legislation that preceded the Holocaust, prompting a row. Councillor Ed Reyes said, "Los Angeles is the second-largest city in this country, an immigrant city, an international city. It needs to have its voice heard. As an American, I cannot go to Arizona today without a passport. If I come across an officer who's having a bad day and feels that the picture on my ID is not me, I can be ... deported, no questions asked. That is not American."

Dealing with illegal immigration is a challenge President Obama has yet to face, to the grave disappointment of Hispanic supporters, many of whom want an amnesty.

Everyone in the US bar Native Americans is descended from immigrants, willing or unwilling. But who should be here now is a tricky subject in a changing country. It is not just from Florida in the east to California in the west, it is on the bus I take to work in the morning in Washington and in areas of New York and Chicago that you hear more Spanish than English. It makes some of those descendants of earlier immigrants very uncomfortable.