Over at Grantland, Bryan Curtis has a piece on the Arizona immigration law at spring training:
The Arizona law, known as SB 1070, went into effect in September. Six months later, half the players in baseball have reported to the greater Phoenix area. More than one-quarter of those players are Latino. Even though every one of them is fully documented, SB 1070 has made major leaguers into unwitting test subjects and spring training into a simulated game of “Who looks suspicious?” “The Dominican ballplayer that speaks Spanish, in the eyes of some, that’s ‘reasonable suspicion,'” says Raul Grijalva, a Democratic U.S. congressman from Tucson.
“I got a driver’s license,” Herrera says. Every time Herrera ventures outside the ballpark, he makes sure he takes it with him. Talk to Latino players in Arizona and you find them constantly patting their pockets for licenses, green cards, passports.
“I carry them all the time,” says Martin Prado, a Venezuelan-born third baseman with the Diamondbacks. “Just in case. You never know.”
[Photo Via: It’s a Long Season]
Ugh! Probably comments should be off as this can turn political real quick. I hope Jan Brewer has a daughter, her daughter gets into a relationship with an illegal immigrant, gets knocked up, then we can all watch her mom's head explode. Oh to dream!
you can be for border security and still think this law is complete and utter bullshit, really you can!!
Right around the time SB1070 was passed, I went to a rally here in Dallas protesting the bill. I was with a lily-white Canadian friend who at the time was a permanent resident, but not a citizen.
Someone was running around trying to register people to vote, and she stopped to ask us if we were registered. My friend looked at her and said he wasn't a citizen, so he wasn't eligible. She got this shocked look on her face and said "I never would have known." We both looked at each other in complete disbelief, and finally I was able to spit out "That's kind of the point of why we're here, ma'am."
She was the living embodiment of why a bill like SB1070 is a horrible idea, prone to extreme abuse. Her mind was completely blown that one of the few white people at the rally might not be a citizen.
I agree with my man Raging Tartabull. This law is stupid, bullshit and rascist. I won't visit Arizona until they overturn this law.