Arizona's new immigration law has polarized Arizona and much of the country. The recently introduced Pennsylvania House Bill 2479, which also would provide for police to check a person's legal status when stopped for another reason, could produce a similar result here.

In other countries, citizens are required to have their papers available for police to review. In Italian cities, people are routinely stopped and asked to prove their legal status. I lived there for four years and was never approached. Others were regularly stopped, asked questions and embarrassed in public. Perhaps American officers have better judgment, but I saw that light-skinned speakers of English didn't attract the attention of the carabinieri like dark-skinned speakers of North African languages did.

Consider the possible effects of a law requiring police in Pennsylvania to check the legal status of anyone of whom they have "reasonable suspicion." Consider my son's baseball team, which is well-coached by a Latino and a Jewish American and whose players belong to families of various ethnic backgrounds. We come together weekly to enjoy the national pastime.

Imagine one Saturday the kids are playing and the police have a reason to be in the parking lot. Two officers approach and ask each parent who looks Hispanic for his or her papers (assuming the process would unfold like that in other countries and that the white and African-American parents would not be asked).

We watch this, as do the children. What does this teach them? When the police leave, what remains?

People with their differences highlighted, to themselves and their kids. People left to deal with yet another barrier, as if another was needed, between white and brown, English and Spanish, between those who are accepted and those who are suspected.

You may say this is overly dramatic, that the sponsors of Pennsylvania's legislation wouldn't assume immigrants are criminals or support separate treatment based on color.

But look at the website of one of the bill's co-sponsors, state Rep. Tom Creighton, R-Lancaster, who represents my part of the state. It includes a Pennsylvania map with "INVASION" scrawled across it and an explanation as to the threat of "illegal alien invaders." Murder, rape, disease and terrorism could be coming to your backyard, doorstep and workplace, Mr. Creighton's website predicts.

This language comes from "Invasion PA," a report provided by the bill's main sponsor, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry. The report includes data gathered by FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. FAIR is widely considered a domestic hate group, professing mainstream moderation but maintaining ties to far right and nationalist organizations. Do the districts represented by these elected officials know how and with whom they are aligned?

Politicians on both sides of the aisle recognize illegal immigration as a problem, and a serious issue in border states such as Arizona. But many local and national leaders, including law enforcement officials, believe that Arizona's legislation probably is unconstitutional and that its enforcement could impinge upon the civil rights of legal citizens.

I ask you also to consider the example we would be setting for our children if a similar bill passes in Pennsylvania.

There is a vibrant and developing Latino immigrant population in many parts of our state, from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and places in between, fear of which seems to have spurred our lawmakers to draft this legislation. So who do you think will be asked to prove that they belong?

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