The "debate" over the Utah list of suspected illegal immigrants is a good example of what's wrong with political discourse in the US right now. If you haven't been following the story, a group of concerned citizens sent out an anonymous letter with the name of 1300 suspected illegal immigrants (and it included names, addresses, social security numbers, and due dates of pregnant women) to the government and then, when ICE didn't respond fast enough, they sent it out to the media.

Obviously, people have run to their extremes on this one. The Left rightfully questions how this list was compiled and mocks the hypocrisy of this letter about illegal aliens possibly being compiled illegally. They (and I've been guilty of this too) also mocked the fact that it was sent out anonymously but that's not really a big deal; after all, many times people who turn in criminals or blow the whistle are shielded to protect their identity. Some liberals also call it a witch hunt but that ignores one key difference - witches don't actually exist. Obviously, some of the names on the list are probably US citizens but it's not like it's unreasonable to think that a majority of the names are illegal immigrants.

And that brings up the main flaw in the liberal thinking - they seem to forget that illegal immigrants are indeed illegal. They often use the term "hard-working" to describe illegals as if that makes it alright that they aren't supposed to be here. Conservatives are right to think that this is a problem and that we probably should be looking to deport people who aren't supposed to be here. Also, I find the whole "If you are illegal and give birth in America, your kid is an American citizen" angle odd. Isn't that kind of like profiting from a crime? I think one of the punishments for illegal immigration should be that your children are stripped of their citizenship; they weren't supposed to be here to start with.

Of course, the conservatives also ignore the realities of the situation. Utah is trying to pass an immigration law like the one in Arizona but could you imagine what would happen to the state police if they had gotten this list? Do we really want our overburdened and under funded state and local police forces to be burdened by calls and 1300 name lists that they have to investigate? How is it going to help the relationship with the Latino community if they have to investigate every anonymous tip that someone is an illegal alien? The issue in the US is that we need to take a look at ICE and see how they are proceeding and why they don't seem to be cracking down on illegals as much as they should. The local police shouldn't be called in. This is exactly how systems break down - when the bigger system fails and processes are forced on smaller, weaker outlets that can't handle the workflow.

The Utah List is yet another issue that lies within the gray area that most people like to ignore while beating their chest and regurgitating talking points. The idea of people turning in names of suspected illegal immigrants isn't a bad thing. People should be looking to turn in people that break the law. But these people also need to work within the law, can't steal government information, and they need to go to the proper authorities. And if those authorities don't respond, tell the media THAT. Don't release the entire list to the media and run the risk of innocent people's addresses being posted and have them get harassed for a crime they didn't commit. (Not to mention that the entire investigation would probably end up being a waste because, if the information was obtained illegally through the state, then the list would be inadmissible and the case would be thrown out for lack of probably cause.

Once again, this is an example of people trying to do the right thing but going about it the wrong way. But vilifying them completely (especially when also holding up illegal immigrants as victims) is also going too far.