It is not hard to understand the hatred directed toward illegal immigrants. After all, we have alternately reviled Mormons, the Chinese, Irish, Jews, Japanese, Blacks, and most recently Muslims at one time or another. Why not hate illegal mainly Hispanic immigrants too? Isn't it their turn?

Not really. Unlike chimpanzees humans have the capacity to reason. However, some people choose to give in to their baser instincts and others choose to sponsor xenophobic policies for political gain. Maybe that's what it takes to get elected, or re-elected.

First find a group that doesn't vote, doesn't lobby, and does not contribute to political campaigns, then sponsor discriminatory laws and build your career on the ensuing controversy and national media attention.

This brings us to Arizona state Senator Russell Pearce's S1070. But what about the Washington Post Poll that says a majority of Americans support Arizona's show-me-your-papers law? Well, polls can be a funny thing. I'm sure that if you polled Americans after Pearl Harbor, most would have agreed that interning Japanese Americans was the right thing to do. If you polled most white Americans in the South in the 60s, I'm sure a majority would have been against the Civil Rights Act. And most Germans would have favored the anti-Jewish laws in the 30s.

However, if you look more closely at the poll results, it turns out that 57% of those who favor profiling also support a path to citizenship. Now there's a fact you'll never hear on Fox "News". So these same people apparently have the common sense to understand that a purely enforcement approach to solving illegal immigration will fail. Chalk one up for human beings…

But just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, Pearce now plans to introduce legislation that would deny citizenship to children of illegals. (At one point this author too considered supporting a similar law-until he actually researched the idea.)

But Russell Pearce is either too lazy to do his homework or is just another morally bankrupt politician that shamelessly panders to nativists and the Tea Party crowd. One thing for sure is that Pearce isn't targeting those that actually employ illegals. After all, they vote and contribute money.

Here in New Mexico we already suffered a similar mad dog legislative moment when a New Mexico state senate candidate from Las Vegas, NM (a Republican naturally), suggested we place land mines on the border. Although Tom Mullens later retracted the proposal, the detail with which he explained the idea clearly illustrates the thinking of the far right.

Those of you who really want to understand exactly why terminating citizenship of children born to illegals is a profoundly bad idea should download and read this article: "Myths and Facts About Birthright Citizenship" available at myGreencard.com. If you do, you'll instantly know far more about this subject than Russell Pearce. And when you do, please contact his office and help educate him.