Ugly side of immigration debate

Last year the Alabama Legislature created a 21-member state panel with the mission of probing deeper into the matter of undocumented workers and their impact.The optimist hopes the state is sincerely wrestling with handling the problem. The pessimist, armed with the knowledge of how Alabama has operated in the past, is not so confident.

Joint Interim Patriotic Immigration Commission, the panel's John Birch Society-sounding name, invited the public to Huntsville, Ala., last week.

The proceedings took an ugly turn as members of the public blamed all sorts of social ills on illegal immigration. Hispanic speakers were jeered and told to leave. The AP report noted:

Two hours into the public hearing, Jose Guerrero of Athens became one of the few Hispanic speaker to approach the microphone. He told the audience he felt like a goldfish in a bowl of piranha.
Guerrero, who was born in the U.S., praised the United States and asked of the panel only one thing: "Tell the governor there are Hispanic citizens out there, too."

It's important to recall that the New York Times recently lauded Huntsville as a city more progressive than Alabama's reputation. We'd hate to see what happens when the panel meets in a less-enlightened venue.

Update: The Huntsville Times has editorialized on the nasty hearing.