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Of course, the local cops are calling it a "rookie mistake":

A Dallas rookie police officer erred when he cited a woman earlier this month for being a non-English speaking driver, police said.

Officer Gary Bromley issued a citation Oct. 2 to 48-year-old Ernestina Mondragon after stopping her for making an illegal U-turn in the 500 block of Easton Road, near East Northwest Highway, according to a copy of the citation.

"That's a charge that does not exist here in the city of Dallas," said department spokesman Sgt. Warren Mitchell. "Although we believe it was a sincere mistake ... there's no excuse for it."

He said that charge and a charge of failure to present a driver's license were dropped.

Bromley, 33, is a trainee officer in the Northeast Patrol division. His trainer on the date the ticket was issued was Senior Cpl. Daniel Larkin, 53, said Deputy Chief Tom Lawrence, Northeast Patrol commander.

Under the Dallas City Code, taxi drivers must be able to communicate in English. Mitchell said there is also a federal statute that says commercial drivers must speak English, but it would not have applied in this case.

Seems to me the problem is not merely with Officer Bromley's assumptions about Driving While Mexican, but those of his training officer, who presumably oversaw the citations as Bromley was writing them up.

Of course, if Officer Bromley winds up washing out in Dallas because of this, he needn't worry. He would probably be welcomed at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department with open arms.

UPDATE: Now the Dallas police chief is admitting that there have been dozens of such tickets:

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said this afternoon that his officers have written at least 39 citations to people over the past three years for not speaking English.

Apologizing publicly to the city's Spanish-speaking community, the chief said all officers and supervisors involved will be investigated for dereliction of duty. All pending citations will be dismissed, and people who paid fines will be reimbursed.

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[H/t Heather]

My boycott of Arizona and the Diamondbacks is going very well. Bloggers and news paper op-eds are calling for practically the same thing. I've received a ton of emails from our readers who support a boycott and are simply sick and tired of these wealthy business owners like Jerry Colangleo doing their best to destroy what America stands for. It's not farfetched to think that this law was targeted at Latino voters, who are too young to vote now, but will be soon -- as well as the vast number of Latino voters already registered in AZ.

What moved GOP Governor Jan Brewer to sign the Soviet-style show-me-your-papers law is the exploding number of legal Hispanics, US citizens all, who are daring to vote -- and daring to vote Democratic by more than two-to-one. Unless this demographic locomotive is halted, Arizona Republicans know their party will soon be electoral toast. Or, if you like, tortillas.

With a sheriff like Joe Arpaio, if I were Latino and had a family in Arizona, I would be very afraid -- legal or otherwise. But I think it'll take more than that to scare them out of their homes.

Have you heard a peep from the leading Republicans for the 2012 presidential race about Arizona's new racial profiling new law? Sarah Palin went on Fox and voiced her support for Jan Brewer, but since then has been silent: no bumbling Facebook posts yet. Meanwhile, where's Newt or Mitt or Huck?

Scarborough, who I disagree with most of the time, is asking the same questions on Morning Joe:

Scarborough: One out of every three citizens in the state of Arizona are Hispanic and you have now put a target on their back on one of three citizens if they're walking their dog around the neighborhood. If they are walking their child to school. They are an American citizens and a legal, legal immigrant and now put a target on their back and make them think when they walk out their door, they may have to prove something. I will tell you that is un-American. It's unacceptable and un-American.

Where's Mitt Romney? Where's Newt Gingrich? Where's Mike Huckabee?

Why are they hiding? We know they probably support this Bircher, nativist law so why don't they just come out and say it? There was a reason Bush and Rove tried to do immigration reform, but now the GOP fears their teabagger base even more than the Democratic Party does.

Kos writes:

The new law has already cost Arizona a convention.

Just minutes after Brewer signed 1070 into law on Friday, the American Immigration Lawyers' Association canceled their annual fall convention. They had planned to host the September event in Scottsdale.

"We can't in good conscious spend the organization's money in a state that's going to pursue these kinds of policies," said Regina Jeffries of the AILA.

The irony is that this law is so constitutionally compromised, it will likely never be enforced. Yet Arizona's xenophobes have essentially turned their state into an American pariah, the likes they hadn't seen since their MLK Day disaster, while costing Arizonans in tourism and jobs. And for what? For a hateful statement that will do nothing to address the issue of half a million undocumented workers in their state, could bankrupt myriad municipalities, and provide the ultimate catalyst for real immigration reform at the federal level.