Here’s a letter to the Washington Times:
You report that “A federal judge on Wednesday said Alabama law enforcement officers can try to check the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally” (“Federal judge upholds key parts of Alabama immigration law,” Sept. 29).
So it has finally come to pass that in America agents of the state go about demanding from peaceful people “Your papers, please.”
The fact that the armed officials speak, not ominously accented German, but familiar American English when demanding to see documentation that someone has government approval simply to be in a certain jurisdiction – the fact that the words spoken literally are “Your papers, please” rather than “Ihre papiere, bitte” – does nothing to make this spectacle any less heinous an affront to freedom and to civilization than it was in Nazi Germany.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
