We Are All Immigrants

If you missed it last night, or you've turned your television off like we have, you can watch Frontline: Lost in Detention online (54 minutes). Not for the faint of heart, it shows the abusiveness and insanity of US immigration enforcement.

Because of the likelihood of abuse, a few things should never be privatized. Prisons, health care, and education are at the top of that list. Capitalism is fine. But when it morphs into unbridled greed, as it clearly has done, it can only lead to human suffering, gross injustice, and economic collapse.

Alabama's new anti-immigrant law is already hurting its farmers, because much to the surprise of Governor Bentley, most U.S. citizens really don't want to do farm work. "Jobless resident Americans lack the physical stamina and the mental toughness to see the job through," says Alabama farmer Jerry Spencer. There's a certain measure of desperation, determination, and fortitude required to do that kind of work. Most of us aren't that desperate, determined, or tough. But if the economy and our elected officials continue on their current path, it's likely that our children will be.

All human beings are migrants. We are born into this life, we stay for a while, and then we move on. None of us are permanent residents. In the meantime, we go where we believe we have the best chance to provide for our families. Those who are desperate, determined, and strong enough to do the work that U.S. citizens do not want to do, who see grueling farm work as their best chance to provide for their families, pose no threat to anyone. We need them. And our well-being is tied to theirs.

--TomRW & MaryRW

More from HuffPost: After Alabama Immigration Law, Few Americans Taking Immigrants' Work

And more from the Washington Post/Associated Press: Few Americans Take Immigrants' Jobs in Alabama

The Outlaw Is You

Professor David Cole writes against a recent perversion of the justice system in this country: The government declares that such and such group is a "foreign terrorist organization;" posits that so-and-so is a member of it. Just like that, it is a felony for you to do anything for that person!

The government may not be able to prove that its presumed "terrorist" has violated any law. The government may not be able to prove that that person is a member of the group. The government need not prove that the group even exists.

Just the government's say-so that that person is in a blacklisted group makes you a felon if you fill his tooth cavity, cut his hair, sell him a hamburger. Your ignorance of the guy's status on the blacklist is no excuse.

In the bad old days, the government could pass a law against a person: decree that it's against the law to be Billy the Kid, say. Modern law did away with outlawry--until now.

It's worse now than it used to be. In the dark ages it was only the outlaw who was beyond the law's protection. Now it's you.