The law was intended to shut down a couple of ethnic studies programs in Tuscon, which focus on the influence of particular ethnic groups in American history and literature. This is a big problem, according to the state schools chief, Tom Horne, because . . . wait for it . . . the program teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people. That just cracks me up. I mean, I hate to break it to Horne, but Latino students don’t need an ethnic studies class to know that. Rest assured, they’ll learn that lesson one way or another.

But wait, there’s more. Horne also said the presence of the ethnic studies program has created an environment in Tuscon schools that is “just like the old South.” Whoa there! Looks like the Horne-ster may have been the product of America’s Failing Public Schools himself! Brief refresher. Old South: Lynching. Racial terrorism. School segregation. Jim Crow. Violence. KKK. Literacy tests. And most importantly? Notable absence of ethnic studies programs.

It says a lot about the pitiable state of things in Arizona that the man in charge of schools (the chief, no less) believes in pacifying students by teaching them complete nonsense. It takes a special kind of educator to get behind a program that seeks not to teach.

The ACLU has already argued the law violates the First Amendment and is hopelessly vague. Presumably, Horne’s going to be a little biased when he decides what classes “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.” But look. Isn’t a history class that excludes the perspectives of ethnic minorities in America designed primarily for white people? Maybe the real problem with the law is that, if taken seriously, it could knock out 99% of all public education in Arizona for lack of racial bias.

Finally — isn’t overthrow of the U.S. government more of an after-school club?

-AS

Q: What does an illegal immigrant look like?

A: [Awkwardly laughs.] I do not know. I do not know what an illegal immigrant looks like. I can tell you that there are people in Arizona who assume they know what an illegal immigrant looks like. I don’t know if they know that for a fact or not. But I know that if AZ Post gets theirselves together, works on this law, puts down the description, that the law will be enforced civilly, fairly, and without discriminatory, uh, points to it.”

Try not to enforce that law with discriminatory, uh, points, Arizona. Ouch!

-AS

And what do you think those lovely folks at the Warren Institute found? Gobs and gobs of racial profiling. Just gobs.

It turns out that when you, the federal government, let them, the Irving cops, call you 24 hours a day to complain about the Mexicans to screen for immigration status, Hispanics start committing a lot of low-level traffic violations. Well, either that, or the Irving police start arresting the heck out of Hispanics for misdemeanor crimes. You know, like crimes where they have lots of discretion choosing who to stop, arrest, and/or harass.

Meanwhile, the federal government can feel good knowing the program they promised would identify those really bad, public-safety-threatening types managed to actually flag some felons for immigration review. Huzzah! Unfortunately, that was only about 2 percent of the time. The other 98 percent of the time they were, you know, getting a real handle on the local broken-taillight problem in Irving.

-AS

By this, Treviño meant, I don’t think we should have to show passports where I live in Texas, because it is inconvenient to me, and this is my ill-phrased way of showing my annoyance. (This understanding of his stance took some time in gathering, as I had to get it via a sequence of 140-or-less-word blurbs.)

Although Mr. T (if I may call him that) has since declined to endorse racial profiling (and by calling for open borders, pissed off some, ahem, racists who immediately came to his e-defense), his statement is very telling. Mr. T is half-Mexican, although he doesn’t look it, and he identifies racially only as “Texan.” (Except when he is defending himself against charges of racism, when he then identifies as half-Mexican. But I digress.) The thing that Mr. T gets at so well is that buzz-words like “security” and “border control” and “fighting terrorism” all sound good until they start affecting you personally, when they suddenly become very annoying – or worse.

What a lot of civil liberties and immigrant rights groups have been saying for some time is that even if your “red hair and pale skin” are protecting you now, if you don’t look around at what is happening to the other Texans without your same “passport,” there will be no good law to protect you from that Border Patrol cavity search down the road, if I may be so blunt. Mr. T is lucky that so far his red hair and pale skin have still functioned as a passport outside the Border Patrol checkpoints. Now that local law enforcement actors are being deputized to enforce immigration laws (thanks to the disastrous 287(g) program), anyone with a name like Treviño would be wise not to count on that passport for too long – especially not if he plans to make any road trips to Arizona any time soon.

-AS