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Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough has earned the wrath of many of his fellow Republicans for his criticism of the new Arizona immigration law. In the face of growing volumes of hate mail, today Scarborough continued as he called the bill un-American. Scarborough said targeting legal Hispanics is, “unacceptable and un-American.”

Media Matters:

Yesterday, Scarborough called the law offensive. He took it even further today, “It does offend me when one out of every three citizens in the state of Arizona are Hispanics, and you have now put a target on the back of one of three citizens who if they are walking their dog around a neighborhood. If they are walking their child to school, and they are an American citizen or a legal, legal immigrant can now put a target on their back and make them think that every time they walk out of their door, they may have to prove something. I will tell you that is unacceptable, and that is un-American.”

Scarborough argued that illegal immigrants should be prosecuted, but he is one of the few Republicans who get the fact that this law tramples the rights of legal immigrants and American citizens of Hispanic descent in Arizona. For taking the common sense position that the government should not be forcing its own citizens to carry papers, and that forming a police state is a bad idea, Scarborough is getting hate mail from those on the right who think that he is a RINO.

The Party of Lincoln has now become the party of legalized discrimination. The problems that I have with this law have nothing to do with illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are breaking the law. My concern is for the legal Hispanics in the state who will be subject to harassment and discrimination because they look like they might not be in this country legally. If Republicans are truly serious about solving the immigration problem, then they need to propose laws that crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

This will never happen, because the right wants to talk tough on illegal immigration, but don’t want to lose the cheap source of labor that illegal immigration brings. They can’t imagine a world where employers would have to replace their illegal immigrants with legal employees who make a higher wage. The whole Arizona fiasco demonstrates that the GOP has learned nothing. It is good politics for them to play to their white base with racist immigration policies, but they are pushing Hispanic voters away from the party. Their support for this law will push Hispanic voters across the country away from the GOP and into the welcome arms of the Democratic Party, as Reagan’s big tent has been replaced by white hoods hiding white faces.