THE BORDER REPORT

The outrage has simmered throughout the country for a few days now, with activists calling for a boycott of Arizona after the passage of the first state bill in the nation that criminalizes illegal immigrants. The loudest voices seem to think the status quo of sustaining what's essentially a slave labor class is a solution. Well, no; it's not.

Most of the economic threats I'm reading about this morning  are weak bluster with no teeth, particularly the loudest voices, the San Francisco, Calif., Board of Supervisors and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

I'll put aside my most immediate concerns for the moment about 1070, the threat of racial profiling and the challenge to Fourth Amendment protections for U.S. citizens; because these two boycott threats in particular are focusing on illegal immigration.

Here's a San Francisco Supervisor being interviewed:

Immigration should be treated "not as a police enforcement issue, but as a human rights issue, as a social issue," Supervisor John Avalos tells the San Francisco Chronicle.

Think about what they're saying here. They don't seem to have the slightest idea of what people go through to get into this country and get a job scrubbing our toilets. Every year, some 300,000 people cross the border illegally into the United States. On average, one dies about every day. They come into the U.S. undocumented, take poorly-paying jobs with little or no basic benefits like health care and live in slum conditions. Another average of one a day die in these jobs because there's little federal oversight into working conditions. Those with legitimate employment pay into a Social Security fund they will never see a nickel of because they are equipped with someone else's Social  Security number. Illegal migrants are exploited; and this is a human right?

Illegal immigrants are shit upon by every facet of society.

The liberal bastion that complain about East L.A. sweatshops and unfair labor laws are the first to clamor on about "human rights" every time U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pull a workplace raid as if sustaining a slave labor class is acceptable.

The conservatives, those who aren't simply racist, see no problem employing illegal immigrants at reduced costs using the pretext that nobody works harder than a Mexican.

The Mexican government, always silent about its people's living conditions in the U.S., now complain that 1070 is dangerous to its citizenry. This method of passage into the U.S. is apparently of no concern to Mexico City:

Earlier this month, I covered a story in Phoenix about a shuttle van smuggling case that the Feds took down. The arrests swept across Arizona with more than 50 people taken down and came within two days of the state senate's approving 1070. At a press conference I covered later that day, Assistant ICE Secretary John Morton was asked about 1070 and the idea of Arizona enforcing federal immigration law.

"We need federal comprehensive immigration reform," Morton responded. "What we don't need is a patchwork of state laws."

He's right; so where is it? I've been hearing about federal comprehensive immigration reform since January 2004 when Pres. George Bush gave his famous "our borders are broken" speech.

With the passage of the healthcare bill last month, it was believed Obama would start in on immigration reform because of the healthcare bill's backing by the Hispanic Caucus.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid swore two weeks ago that immigration reform would be introduced to the Senate floor in 2010. He's wrong. Congress is tackling jobs and energy legislation right now, then the Supreme Court nominations are coming up in the summer. By the fall, when Congress returns from vacation, mid-term elections will be coming up and every legislator will be busy campaigning.

Of course, that was before 1070 became a real issue. Arizona just lobbed a frag grenade into the comfort policy of ignoring illegal immigrants. People around the country are hell-bent on punishing Arizona for the bill but so far, there has been no other action taken that comes close to forcing the management of immigration out of the shadows and onto the table.