Anti-illegal immigrant Latinos in L.A? Yeah, they exist.

In our piece this week about how Arizona tourism officials have the nerve to schedule a meet-and-greet with the press later this month in an attempt to drum up travel for the state's Southwestern cuisine and other Mexican-influenced cultural delights, we noted the irony.

After all, Arizona is the state that passed a law that would allow its cops to ask people they stop if they have papers.

We said that, in this, arguably the most Latino of America's major cities, there's a sense that Arizona's law is driven by patently anti-Mexican feelings. Latinos particularly feel like the legislation was a slap in the face to everyone in the U.S. with a Spanish surname.

Our commenter of the day, Robert, begs to differ:

“I respectfully disagree with your assessment … that the vast majority of American Latinos believe Arizona's law is anti-Mexican … I would love to get you to a meeting with many of my Latino friends from all over the city born and raised like me in LA and … legal Mexican Americans who support Arizona and hope CA passes a similar bill. Our city has changed drastically with all the influx of illegals. … Ask the Mexican Americans who live in neighborhoods with illegals on the Eastside and South LA, Pacoima, Echo Park and hear what they say about the illegals.”

What do you think? Are Latinos in L.A. fed up with illegal immigration, or does the issue make a scapegoat out of our lowest-paid, hardest-working (non) citizens?

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