The governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, has just forced an arm wrestle with the U.S. government after her repeated and unsuccessful requests to strengthen its international borders. Arizona has a 650 km border with Mexico, which in recent years has become one of the busiest for illegal immigration.

Apparently, 450,000 illegal immigrants reside in the state on a stable basis, and the state authorities have decided to put an end to what was becoming a widespread and socially accepted way of doing things.

To this end, they have opted for the solution (already used in Italy) of criminalizing illegal immigration. It will no longer be a mere irregular status , but a crime, deserving of a strong sanction.

Likewise, the social support will be eliminated by punishing those who transport, give accommodation or give occupation to these people. And above all, the police are given a free hand to consider anyone who generates "reasonable doubt" as a suspect.

In the so-called common European imaginary, an important place is occupied by literature that gives the Criminal Law a leading role. Who does not remember the Victorian atmosphere of Charles Dickens' novels, or Victor Hugo's Jean Valjean. Little Dorrit and Les Miserables appeared a few years apart, before the disappearance final of the debt prison. Today, the Criminal Law has the same literary, or even cinematic appeal, but, fortunately, it has evolved.

In the first place, it must be reduced to a minimum: it is a last ratio in the sense that it should be resorted to only when there is no other possibility. On the other hand, although the criminal law implies specific contents, linked to the needs and peculiarities of the social group , which gives it a margin of historical and even cultural variability, it also, and this is important, constitutes a reflection of the moral conceptions of a people. Contemporary attempts to promote a reversal have not only political, and even sociological, support, but also more than a few intellectually powerful formulators. This arises in connection with the obligation of states to protect their citizens in subject security or terrorism.

However, I do not believe that any of these intellectual arguments are applicable to undocumented immigrants. Illegal immigration is, as its name suggests, against the law, and that has legal consequences. But the reason why a person is in that status can be very varied. On the other hand, it is extremely disturbing to say that a person generates a "reasonable doubt" and it is very difficult to think that we are not referring with this euphemism to the color of the skin.