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Illegal. Not legal. Not abiding by the law. Cheating. Lying. Fooling.

That's illegal.

The federal government apparently can't grasp that simple word, but the state of Arizona can.

So it's taking matters into its own hands. Because it understands the crux of the illegal immigration problem in this country: incentives to come here.

Remove them and maybe illegals don't come here.

No job here. Why come here?

It's odd, to me, that employers in Arizona find that concept offensive and policing such illegal hiring, onerous.

The law, as I see it, bends over backwards to make accommodations for businesses that were fooled by elaborate paperwork and phony IDs.

Where it won't bend is on those employers who weren't fooled at all. Employers knowingly hired people who shouldn't be here — sometimes for cheap labor, sometimes for convenience, oftentimes, for both.

That's what this is about. Not burdensome regulations on employers.

Arizona is doing what the federal government is not: addressing the issue.

And what I see as the core of the problem: disincentivizing the reason for coming to this great country at all.

We welcome all here. We don't welcome short cuts here — or worse, lying, cheating or stealing here.

Some say it's not the government's job to police who business is hiring. They're right. Their job is to make sure who they're not hiring.

Arizona gets that. It's a pity our Congress does not.

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