I appreciate your article and many of the points you made. However you hold yourself out to be a professional journalist. A couple of points on your piece:

“Polls show that most Arizonans and a slight majority of Americans are fine with the new law, which requires police to question people about their immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally.”

The fact is Mr. Washington that about 72% of the people in AZ support the legislation. And a “slight” majority of Americans that are “fine” with the law is a blatant misrepresentation of the truth. In some states the approval of the AZ law is as high as 82%, and the NATIONAL average is pretty much what it is in AZ, about 72 to 75% That, Mr. Washington is a tad above a “slight majority”.

And your comment that states “requires police to question people about their immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally” is a very poor attempt to misrepresent what the law actually says. An office MUST be in the mode of addressing a potential law breaker BEFORE he can challenge immigration status. This rhetoric that you use brands you as a liberal with an agenda. Why else would your purposely misrepresent the letter OR the intent of the law? Are you to a professional? Or is this simply just a political hit piece?

We have a daughter in Tucson that routinely goes out in the desert to work on her Masters thesis, dealing in reptiles and fish. The territory south of a Tucson is not safe, in the United States of America.

And I can’t help but bring attention tn your GOP dominated legislature comment. The last time I looked, 70 to 72% of the population of the United States is NOT GOP. Why are you trying to politicize this Mr. Washington? You work for the AP which means you could live anywhere, but I am betting it is not in AZ. You have not seen our deserts, how they are being trashed. You have not seen the drugs. You do not experience 6 times the crime rate of NYC with a population that is 5 times SMALLER than NYC. You do not live in the kidnapping capital of the country. And maybe or maybe not you have UNITED STATES citizens that have been murdered by illegal aliens in your town. I can think of three instances without trying, 1 in Indiana, our Rancher in Southern AZ, and the father and two sons in LA. Just the tip of the iceberg.

Don’t you realize that LEGAL Hispanics are as upset about this as the rest of the legal citizens. Except for native Americans, we are all immigrants. The country was built on immigrants, millions who came through Ellis Island. The path to citizenship is a long one, AND should be reformed and streamlined. A guest worker program for people who want to work? Certainly has some merits, but with 10% unemployment, and if you count the people who have stopped looking, upward of 17%, having illegals taking jobs away from US citizens is way out of line.

There was just a company in Boston who had 300 illegals working for it. They were rounded up; the jobs were filled immediately by US Citizens. Now that Mr. Washington is a story worth pursuing. Use your talents in a productive way. Many of your comments were right on, but it appears that the correct parts of your story were used to throw smoke over your real agenda.