While I’ve been blogging about music and digital technology for the past couple of months, something interesting has been happening. More counties and states have been “cracking down” on illegal aliens and individuals and businesses that hire them.
The DC area has been flooded with illegal aliens, especially Northern Virginia. Prince William County has authorized its law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of people stopped even for minor traffic violations. (Source) Only the federal government can enforce immigration law (and deport people), but local governments are well within their rights to ask about immigration status and to report those who can’t or won’t prove it.
Frankly, this stinks of “too little, too late.” About 20 years too late. Millions upon millions of people are in this country illegally. While local ordinances like Prince William County’s are a necessary step to at least making a dent in the problem, illegal aliens will just pick up and move to “friendlier” counties. (MoCo MD is about to get a lesson in reaping and sowing.) Unless the country has a whole commits itself to securing the borders, stopping illegal “immigration,” and deporting people who don’t belong here, things won’t change.
Why should we expect illegal aliens to respect our laws when legal citizens don’t? It’s very frustrating, which is why I don’t blog about it often anymore. I want to read and write about topics that fuel my emerging fascination with the cultural impact of digital technology.
Illegal “immigration” isn’t one of those topics. 
