Arizona's law was never going to solve the problem of illegal immigration. That is not its purpose.

[pampango]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/30/AR2010073002675.html

Instead it is an invitation to a shootout in which there will be no winners. It is more of a provocation than an attempt to enact policy, and as a protest against Washington's failure to fix a broken immigration system, it resonates.

The authors of Arizona's SB 1070 set out to accomplish two main goals: They wanted to attack legal precedents that have given the federal government almost total say over immigration matters since the 1890s under a doctrine known as "preemption." They argue that Washington has failed to control illegal migration, so states should have a chance. They also wanted national attention for their solution: a strategy they call "attrition through enforcement." The idea is that if illegal immigrants constantly fear arrest by state and local cops, they'll leave the country on their own. By promising a crackdown in defiance of Washington, Arizona achieved both objectives as soon as the law became a national controversy this spring.

Nearly two dozen state governments have contemplated copycat measures, and support for Arizona has become an article of faith for Republicans on the campaign trail. Democrats are scrambling. That makes sense given the public opinion polls showing broad agreement with the Arizona law and its get-tough approach. A Pew survey in June, for example, found that a solid majority of the public (64 percent) approves of the law, with its requirement that police verify the immigration status of anyone they stop if they suspect that the person is in the country illegally. Several other recent national polls show majorities supporting SB 1070. But the policy challenges in immigration are never single faceted, and the public knows that.

Perhaps more than other issues, immigration requires balancing multiple interests and objectives: satisfying both employers and workers, being both fair and strict, for example. As a result, public opinion can seem ambivalent. The same Pew survey that found backing for Arizona also showed that more than two-thirds of Americans (68 percent) support a path to citizenship for illegal migrants who pass background checks, pay fines and have jobs. That's not much different than other Pew surveys going back before the recession. Indeed, a majority has been saying for several years that it wants to see illegal immigration brought under control, but not with harsh measures. The recession has increased anxiety about getting this done, and Arizona offered a vehicle for expressing impatience with Washington's bipartisan dithering.