Immigration Notes

* For decades, undocumented migrants from Mexico were tacitly welcomed in the US.

* We have all benefitted from migrants' work--in fields and orchards, food processing plants and restaurants, child care and housekeeping, gardening and landscaping, construction and roofing and a lot more.

* Undocumented people pay taxes: sales, income, property and Social Security (from which many will never benefit.)

* About 15 years ago, federal agents began sealing the border in populated areas. As a result, migrants--who once came north to work in spring and returned home before Christmas--became true immigrants who just stayed here and sent for their families.

* Since then, migrants have had to go out into the remote desert in order to cross. And they have died there, most often a terrible death from the intense heat. Since 2000, just on the Arizona part of the border, the bodies of at least 1,954 migrants have been found. including 111 since Oct. 1. For the whole border, the number is at least, 5,700

* In this pre-primary election period, voters are repeatedly told to be afraid. Sen. John McCain once a sponsor of immigration reform with Ted Kennedy, is now telling the country that he is "America's last line of defense." He talks of growing violence, when in fact overall violence along the border has gone down.

* Many politicians conflate hard-working migrants and drug dealers. (By the way, our 40-year-old "War on Drugs" has cost $1 trillion and countless lives, but illegal drugs are still available almost everywhere. Blame the insatiable US drug appetite for that.)

* The main person behind Arizona's racist law SB 1070 is state senator Russell Pearce, who has long had connections to white supremacists. Pearce and racial-profiling sheriff Joe Arpaio continually try to spread fear, which then gets them votes. SB 1070 was authored by Kris Kobach, lawyer for the anti-immigrant hate group FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) and a trainer of Arpaio's deputies. FAIR's head, Dan Stein, has lied on national TV about his organization, which was founded by the grandaddy of America's white supremacists, JohnTanton (who remains on FAIR's board of directors.)

* The tragedy goes far beyond Arizona. In the US, over 30,000 immigrants are being held on any given day in over 200 detention centers, costing taxpayers $1.7 billion each year. At least 104 immigrants have died in detention since 2003. Deportations constantly cause family separations, and decent immigration reform seems nowhere in sight.