· Bozeman Daily Chronicle · By Phil Mooney · From the Border Crossing Law Firm media archive.
In this letter to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Phil Mooney disputes Shahid's criticism of Arizona-style immigration enforcement and defends the term "illegal alien." He compares undocumented immigrants to bank robbers and argues that entering or remaining without status is evidence of dishonesty.
The letter is preserved because it prompted Shahid's published response and reflects the language at the center of Montana's 2010 immigration debate. Its argument collapses many distinct immigration circumstances into a single moral judgment, the precise point Shahid answered the following week.