The new Arizona immigration law is admittedly extreme, immediately necessary, and ultimately constitutional.

The most common objection I hear is the charge of racism, and the next is that immigration is a federal responsibility. I think neither objection is valid, and Arizona should be allowed to implement its new law.

When I opine the law is constitutional, I simply assert that it appears so to me. The lawyers and politicians can do no more than give their individual opinions. We alike read the constitution through the filters of our political philosophies. Only the Supreme Court can make a final determination, and this is forthcoming.

The law is extreme indeed. None of the Arizona legislators have ever claimed it to be usual, normal, or routine. When introduced, it was exhaustively debated in its chambers as well as throughout the state. Added to this was sought after as well as unrequested advice and even pressure from all directions. Now is added the attack of no less than the president and his justice department. But Arizona has always known what is was doing, and they know precisely why.

No other state has ever attempted to enact such a heavy handed law on immigration. However, eleven states are actively considering such a law. A state shouldn’t need to make the effort or spend its money on federal law. But they do need to do this.

They need to do this, because the federal government — through several administrations of both parties — has just not done its job. It has failed to stop the inflow of illegal immigrants. It has failed to hunt for them after successful entry.

Most inexcusable of all, the feds have failed to pick up illegal immigrants of whom notified by local police. This has happened not just in all the southern border states, but states throughout the country. Local prosecutors have notified ICE, “We are releasing a person held for a crime we have decided not to prosecute, but we have established as fact the individual is in this country illegally. Please take custody as we release her.” Police have told the feds, “A convicted felon, who is also an illegal alien, is about to complete his sentence; we wish to turn him over to you for deportation.” Federal officials have failed to follow through in the vast majority of the cases.

Yes, immigration is a federal responsibility, but the federal government is irresponsible. Yet, Arizona isn’t proposing to take this over. All it seeks to do is to concentrate on identifying and locating those who have broken federal law by entering this country illegally. Beyond this, the state is simply saying it needs to take care of its legal residents and not be burdened by illegals.

The number of illegal aliens in Arizona alone has more than quadrupled since 1996 and is now well over half a million. In one ten-month period, federal officials arrested almost this number again attempting to enter Arizona alone illegally. Nationally, the number of illegals has more than doubled. Think what it means to have over eleven million illegal aliens in this country.

If you listen more carefully than they want you to, the charges of racism are not racism as a fact but that “it could lead to.” Of course, it could. Every law can be abused. I find nothing in the Arizona law that encourages or is even susceptible to abuse.

If every illegal alien in Arizona was found to be Mexican and if the vast majority of illegal aliens throughout the country are Mexican, I fail to see it unreasonable that Mexicans should receive particular attention.

Are immigrants scared? Of course, but it isn’t the law that scares them but the law’s opponents with their manufactured horror stories. The only  legal aliens who have reason to be scared are those who otherwise break the law by harboring those who are not legal.

Arizona’s law is necessarily extreme because it necessarily deals with an extreme problem. It responsibly protects the state and responsibly assists the federal government with its responsibility.