But this is no fit of pique. Indeed, it could be part of an ad hoc movement. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 463 immigration bills have been introduced just this year in 43 states, "the biggest crop of state immigration proposals ever recorded," the Post writes. Most of the measures, the newspaper continues, "are designed to get tough on illegal immigrants, on employers who give them jobs and on state officials who give them benefits" -- in other words, to fill the breach left by Congress ever since a patriot-lite Senate failed to pass Rep. Tom Tancredo's eminently sensible immigration bill (complete with border fence) that came out of the House last year.

Will these get-tough -- or, at least, get-tougher -- state measures pass? The answer will tell us a lot about whether what we're witnessing is a passing "backlash," or a durable national movement, kicked off by the Minutemen Project, that has emerged from the vacuum on border protection and national preservation left by our leaders in Washington.

I'm not sure if it's simply because I'm looking, but I feel as though I'm seeing more anecdotal reports of American citizens taking local action, whether it's a story out of Arizona -- "Sheriff's posse to patrol desert" -- or from Connecticut, where the appearance of infectious diseases among illegal alien populations has convinced the Board of Health in Milford effectively to ban local restaurants from employing illegal workers. The fact is, if Americans can find a sustainable level of outrage and concern to drive such reform at the state level, we, as a nation, might actually have a chance to survive the hand wringing, no-can-do gridlock in Washington.

Of course, a sustainable level of outrage and concern is no small feat for the extremely comfy people that we are. Then again, times being what they are, the extreme comfort levels to which we have grown accustomed could well become a thing of our past. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Surely, it's time to wean ourselves of immorally cheap labor and immorally cheap goods.
Surely, it's time we learn that some things cost more than we want them to, even -- no, especially -- American citizenship.