A bill approved Tuesday by Arizona lawmakers may be one of the most restrictive pieces of state-level immigration enforcement legislation in the country, making it illegal to be in the state without proper documentation and expanding the power of local police officials to enforce immigration law.
"This is a sad day, and not just for Arizona," said Linda Brown, executive director of the progressive Arizona Advocacy Network, "as we see Jim Crow and apartheid become codified here, where we thought we’d long since seen those days go away."
The measure was passed on a 35-21 strict party-line vote in the Arizona House, and had been approved by the state Senate in February. It will now need to be signed into law by Arizona governor Jan Brewer, a Republican who has argued for stringent immigration enforcement.
Under SB 1070, it is a misdemeanor to be a foreign national without documentation showing proof of legal residency. It would also make it illegal for people to transport undocumented immigrants if the drivers know their status, hire undocumented immigrants or block traffic when they are seeking or offering day-labor services on street corners.
Along with requiring police officers to enforce immigration laws by seeking out undocumented immigrants, the measure allows citizens to sue if they feel a government agency has adopted a policy that hinders the enforcement of immigration laws.
Currently, police are only allowed to ask about a person’s immigration status if that person is a suspect in another crime.
Brown said that anti-immigrant law-enforcement practices have already made racial profiling a problem, but that adding this bill on top of Obama administration deportation quotas will only exacerbate the problem.
"You have got a situation in Arizona and soon to be across this country where the fastest growing ethnic group in this country is swiftly becoming the most suspected," she said, "and by that scrutinized and hated."
Arizona‘s border with Mexico is one the busiest crossing points for undocumented immigrants; in 2005, 253 people died trying to cross the desert into Arizona. An estimated 460,000 undocumented immigrants live in the state.
The main sponsor of the bill, Sen. Russell Pearce (R-Mesa), represents Maricopa County, which is also home to the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio is known for his jails where detainees live in tents in the desert, and is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for civil rights violations and the FBI for abuse of power.
The ACLU and other groups have said they will sue to keep the bill from taking effect if Brewer signs it into law. In a statement, the ACLU said it was extremely disappointed by the bill, and that Arizona would again have to learn the lesson "that it does not pay to trade in our basic liberties for fear mongering."
The statement also said that the criminalizing of day laborers violated the First Amendment, and noted a New Hampshire law struck down in 2005 that would have expanded the state’s trespassing laws to criminalize undocumented immigrants.
Rep. Tom Chabin, a Democrat strongly opposed to the measure, said the cost of the legislation to immigrants would be high. "This bill, whether we intend it or not, terrorizes the people we profit from."
This article originally appeared on the site truthout.org
Arizona can pass race base laws, pass Birthers laws and the state can continue to boycott Martin Luther King Day, well the rest of the Country can boycott the state of Arizona and spank them where it hurts them the most their pocket book. Their phony patriotism is sickening, they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat War profiteering contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that’s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that.
This is pure (impure) racism plain and simple. The Gvernor of Arizona must be impeached NOW. This is fascism not democracy