Hot topic: Immigration

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I've been noticing lately that whenever blogs
post about the issue of immigration their comments
inevitably increase. I'm curious why does this topic
garner such heated and spirited debates? It
must be touching people's lives in a such a deep way
to get this reaction.

I personally don't have strong feelings one way or
another, which is ironic since I live just 3 hours from
the Mexican border. I think both sides have some good
points. I have a couple of pointers to people debating the
issue. One is don't assume people who are for tougher border
enforcement are automatically racist because it truly might
not be the case. They probably just want people to follow the
rule of law. For the anti-immigration crowd my advice is don't
dismiss Hispanics when they call out racism. Some but not all
of the anti-immigration rhetoric is fueled by racism and that issue
shouldn't be avoided.

Closely related to immigration is the English-only debate.
Yes, English is our official language and people who want to
live and work here should learn it. BUT let's not get so
sensitive about seeing signs, documents, etc. translated into
other languages. I applaud and admire people who can
speak more than one language. When I went to Israel last
year, I was amazed at how many people I encountered that
knew not just one or two languages but several. Let's not sell
ourselves short. Plus, it is good for business. People in other
parts of the world learn different languages so they can do
business transactions.

Side read:
Here is a story I did two years ago about a Mexican immigrant
population in small rural city in North Carolina.