Warp wrote:
>   You are missing the point. If I have understood correctly, the vast
> majority of illegal immigrants in the US tend to look like central Americans,
> for obvious reasons.

I don't know about that. I suppose in the south that's true. I would think 
in a city like New York, you'd have a lot of european illegal immigrants, 
more than mexican illegal immigrants.

>   If a very significant percentage of illegal immigrants tend to be central
> Americans, it makes only sense to scrutinize them more closely.

The goal is to have nobody innocent hassled by the government here. "Better 
ten guilty men go free than one innocent man be imprisoned" and all that.

>>>   I'm pretty sure that a significant percentage of illegal immigrants in
>>> the US can be distinguished by their looks. 
> 
>> No. A lot of *legal* immigrants might be distinguished by their looks.
> 
>   What does that have to do with anything? 

Because what you're doing is hassling all people of central american 
descent, regardless of whether they've done anything wrong. That's by 
definition racism. You're treating people differently based on their race, 
not their behavior.

> What matters is where the illegal
> immigrants are coming from, not where the legal ones are.

I think the legal immigrants and the mexican-looking citizens would disagree.

>> Even so, given it's possible that someone is a legal citizen and also a 
>> child of illegal immigrants, you can't distinguish someone by their looks.
> 
>   That sentence doesn't make any sense.

I'm saying that if you're born here of illegal immigrants, you're going to 
look like an immigrant even tho you're not. Thus, you can not distinguish 
legal citizens from illegal immigrants.

>   Stopping crime sometimes means that innocent people are questioned. That's
> something we have to live with.

Yes, but we have rules about how it's done. And maybe your government is 
much better than ours, but I can pretty much guarantee that when you tell a 
racist policeman to round up all the illegal immigrants with certain racial 
characteristics, it won't be a matter of the legal citizens getting 
"questioned." It'll be a matter of descendents of mexicans going to jail for 
a few days at a time because the cops now have an excuse to hassle them.

>   Stop being naive and look at the harsh reality of the world: Criminals are
> scumbags, and because of them innocent people have to sometimes endure some
> scrutiny. 

Scrutiny wouldn't be bad. I can just predict it's not going to stop at 
scrutiny.

Google for the term "DWB."

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Linux: Now bringing the quality and usability of
   open source desktop apps to your personal electronics.

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