I guess I shouldn't have inserted that little personal quip of mine. I feel like whenever I bring up the fact that I am staunchly against illegal immigrants being here, I immediately get my credibility attacked and told it's because I am racist.
It's a tricky situation, because on the one hand, racists obviously push an anti illegal immigrant agenda, but just because they are racist doesn't necessarily mean they are wrong on this particular issue. I agree that state legislation (especially the recent bill proposed by AZ) definitely have racial overtones, but it's hard to completely dismiss their logic...given they are in the southwest and there are some-odd 30 million illegal immigrants of hispanic/south american origin concentrated in that general area. While this gives AZ NO excuse to pass this kind of legislation, I can certainly understand the logic.
I like your idea of giving local law enforcement more access to ICE/DHS, but I fear that will not be enough. Currently, I don't believe the ICE/DHS has the fiscal capacity to handle the current load of illegal immigrants. Perhaps increasing their budget by a few hundred percent and vastly increasing their man-power would help...