We’re all optimists compared to Derb, but I’m feeling particularly upbeat after reading these items:

‐ A Phoenix judge upholds the state’s new anti-smuggling law, which the Phoenix-area DA and sheriff are using to prosecute illegals for conspiring to have themselves smuggled into the country. Especially delicious is that the court dealt a defeat to open-borders lawyer Peter Schey, the millionaire red-diaper baby responsible for using the courts to kill Prop. 187, to force taxpayers to educate illegal-alien kids, and to give amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegals who didn’t qualify for the 1986 amnesty.

‐ Another 2,100 bricks were carted out of congressional offices, all sent or inspired by Send-a-brick.com, urging lawmakers to build a border wall (here are some pictures).

‐ In a pleasant surprise, the Department of Homeland Security has issued new regulations to encourage employers to investigate the fake or mismatched Social Security numbers submitted by illegal workers. And employers are increasingly concluding that the party’s over (or at least ending) for employing illegals.

‐ Michigan’s incumbent Democratic senator and her two Republican challengers are vying to see who’s tougher on immigration. Debbie Stabenow, despite her C- grade on immigration, knows that she won six years ago only because the incumbent, Spencer Abraham, alienated voters with his flamboyant support of mass immigration. Of the four incumbent Democrat senators judged by Charlie Cook to be in tough races, two (Stabenow and Nelson of Nebraska) voted against the amnesty bill.