RALEIGH – Illegal immigration is a complex and emotional issue. It would be complex and emotional no matter how politicians, activists, and media commentators conducted themselves. But among the barriers to reasonable dialogue and immigration reform are the bad behavior and indefensible statements of many politicians, activists, and media commentators, who seem incapable of understanding alternative points of view or avoiding prejudice.

Today’s case in point is the embattled sheriff of Johnston County, Steve Bizzell. A couple of weeks ago, he gave a series of lengthy, revealing interviews to the Raleigh News & Observer about immigration issues in his community. While his reported remarks don’t quite rise to the level of one-sided rant, they included the following:

• Mexican immigrants are “trashy” and “breeding like rabbits.”

• “All they do is work and make love, I think.”

• “How long is it going to be until [whites are] the minority?”

To his credit, during the interviews Bizzell also praised the work ethic of Hispanic immigrants in Johnston County, and issued a mea culpa immediately after the N&O story appeared. “For making those inappropriate statements, I apologize to everyone, especially anyone who was offended,” he wrote.

This was a necessary but insufficient response, and did little to defuse the resulting controversy. The ACLU and NAACP have called for a probe of Bizzell’s department, citing his comments as grounds for suspecting that Hispanics aren’t being treated fairly and respectfully by law enforcement. Tony Asion, a former police officer and now the executive director of El Pueblo, has called for Bizzell’s resignation. These organizations have themselves coarsened the debate about immigration, as I have written in the past, but that doesn’t mean their reaction to the Bizzell case is unjustified.

While those who break the law to enter the country, and other laws to fabricate work documents and drivers licenses, have by their own actions yielded much moral high ground in the immigration debate, they certainly don’t deserve to be dehumanized or subjected to ethnic prejudice by public officials. Moreover, there are many legal residents in or visitors to Johnston County who are of Hispanic origin. Should they have to wonder if Bizzell and his deputies will treat them respectfully?

Imagine that a white sheriff, observing the disproportionate presence of black offenders in the criminal-justice system, said that “blacks were dangerous.” Or imagine that a black sheriff said, based on his personal experience, that “whites can’t be trusted.” Even if the sheriff in each case immediately stepped forward to apologize – the white sheriff saying he had oversimplified his point, and didn’t mean to suggest that blacks were prone to criminality, and the black sheriff saying that he only meant to refer to particular individuals, not to whites as a whole – wouldn’t there be a uproar? Wouldn’t it be justified? And wouldn’t the offended parties, while welcoming an apology, nevertheless have reason to nurse a suspicion of the sheriff’s ability to enforce the law impartially?

Because there is as yet no evidence of systematic wrongdoing, it is quite possible that among the victims of Bizzell’s bigoted comments are the very law-enforcement officers he supervises. The controversy has also made an already tense situation significantly worse, as evidenced by the vitriol spewed on the N&O site and elsewhere.

I still believe that there is a sensible way forward on immigration policy, one that 1) recognizes the legitimate concerns of the public that laws are respected, government programs aren’t overwhelmed, and immigrants admitted in a safe, fair, and orderly fashion while 2) also allowing international labor markets to function and American communities to be enriched by diligent, talented, entrepreneurial, and interesting newcomers from around the world.

Such a path is simply impossible as long as the likes of Lou Dobbs continue to demagogue the issue, the likes of El Pueblo continue to insult our intelligence, and the likes of Steve Bizzell continue to lead our law-enforcement agencies.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.