Defending our gene pool

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.

Liberal Avenger rightly takes umbrage with Malkin's reprinting of a Moonie Times article, and more specifically its inclusion of sickle cell anemia in a list of diseases "imported from southeast Asia and Latin America." LibAv:

Don't worry, Michelle - neither you nor your children will contract sickle cell anemia by sharing the colored water fountain with an illegal immigrant or sitting on a toilet seat that a brown person without documentation may have used earlier in the day...

Given that this undesirable condition is genetic, what then might we change in our immigration policy to weed out immigrants carrying this undesirable trait? The only choice is genetic testing. Does that sound right? We should subject immigrants to testing to see if they carry the sickle cell anemia trait and then what - deny them entry to the country if they do?

Would this brave new policy extend to immigrants who are already in this country? Should we start testing retroactively?

Update: Orcinus provides some historical perspective for this kind of anti-immigration hysteria, and closes with the kind of perfect paragraph only he can write on this subject.

There is no small irony in all this, of course. Because racial bigotry is like a virus, too. Given the proper iteration -- especially by disguising itself as part of the discourse over the "war on terror" -- it can quickly spread from the fringes into the mainstream. Of course, it always takes special transmitters, modern-day Typhoid Marys, to do it. The Washington Times and Michelle Malkin fit that description to a T.