SECURING OUR BORDERS AGAINST THE MENACE OF REFRIED BEANS

From The Christian Science Monitor:

In some ways, the traveling taco stand has become a symbol of the rise of Hispanics in the US. Here in Gwinnett County, Ga., it wasn't any different - until lawmakers outlawed the $1 street-corner taco vendor last month....

Last month, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners became one of the first in the country to ban mobile taco stands, which officials said were cluttering street corners. One Gwinnett politician described the proliferation of rolling taco stands as "gypsy-fication."

Nashville, Tenn., is now considering a similar law. "I don't think you'd see this generalized fear if they were selling grits," says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington....

I'm sure the lawmakers would insist that ethnicity is the furthest thing from their minds, to judge from this AP story:

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.

Food trailers peddling $1 tacos are a thing of the past in Gwinnett County after a crackdown on street vendors.

The last of the county's mobile food vending permits ran out in May after county officials stopped issuing the licenses last fall and tightened ordinances on all street vending....

Whether they sell barbecue or burritos, food trailers are banned under rules passed by the county commission in September....

But apparently nobody saw a problem in and around Lawrenceville a few years ago when this place was gaining a reputation:

Published on: 11/02/04

ON AN OUTPOST of Lawrenceville Highway, just over that city's line, there is a big red pig on the side of the road. It is part of a sign that lures you into the parking lot of Hometown Barbeque ... a barbecue joint that has finally found a home.

For five years prior to this past September, partners George Richbourg and Martha Kelly sold barbecue from a catering truck in the parking lot of the Prescription Shop on the corner of Gwinnett Drive and Scenic Highway in Lawrenceville....

It's nice to know barbecue this good has found a home without wheels....

You're going to see story after story like this as this issue heats up. It's going to be somewhat reminiscent of Jim Crow -- in addition to the more substantive aspects of the crackdowns (see, e.g., "Immigration Enforcement Benefits Prison Firms" in today's New York Times), a lot of what's done will just be petty. And for all the lip service that's paid to "getting tough on businesses that hire illegals," you'll read a thousand stories like this one before you read about any business owner who hires undocumented workers being sentenced to hard time.