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Arizona Immigration Bill Draws Bipartisan Fire |
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Across the country, there is a bipartisan outcry against Arizona’s draconian new anti-immigrant law, which many say is impractical, unenforceable, poor policy and will lead to racial profiling.
On Friday, Arizona’s Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law S.B. 1070, which allows police to stop and question anyone they have “reasonable suspicion” of being undocumented. The bill does not define “reasonable suspicion,” a fact that many opponents say is a carte blanche for racial profiling.
Rebekah Friend, secretary-treasurer of the Arizona AFL-CIO, says:
First of all, this is a federal issue, not a state issue. Second, our police are overburdened already because of budget cuts and this puts an unnecessary burden on them. And I believe it could lead to racial profiling. The presumption of guilt is the antithesis of everything we stand for. Arizona is better than this.
Writing for NDN, a Washington, D.C., think tank, which studies the growing importance of Hispanics and globalization, Alicia Menendez says the law is impractical. Since it’s impossible to identify a foreign national by sight, it effectively mandates that all individuals in Arizona carry papers, she says.
That’s right: you, American citizen, can’t walk your dog or buy milk from the grocery store without having papers on you that confirm your legal residence. If you take your kids to the park and forget your documentation at home, you can be held in police custody until your information is verified, even if you’re a U.S. citizen.
Gerald Lenoir, director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), says U.S. trade policy has played a big role in creating the immigration problem. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for example, Mexico opened its markets to subsidized food crops from the United States. The result is that 3 million Mexican farmers could not compete with cheap U.S. commodities and lost their land and their livelihood. Many of them, along with their families, have migrated to the United States looking for jobs. Lenoir says:
So, let me get this right, the United States invades the economy of another country and the economic refugees that come here are labeled illegal? What’s wrong with this picture?
The usually conservative daily, the Arizona Republic, writes in an editorial today that immigration policy must be established not by individual states but by the federal government, which must enact comprehensive immigration reform.
S.B. 1070 is not an answer to a long-standing failure of the feds to fix the border. It will not stop illegal immigration. To do that, the federal government needs to pass immigration reform that imposes order at the border, creates a legal flow of needed workers and helps bring the nation’s undocumented workforce out of the shadows.
This bill does none of that.
At Huffington Post, Robert Creamer says the new law is a call to action for progressives. Comparing Arizona in 2010 to Alabama in 1963, when officials used police dogs and fire hoses against peaceful civil rights marchers, he says:
[T]he passage of this law may also serve as a wakeup call to people around the country who believe in fundamental American values. In the same way the excesses of Alabama’s leaders helped pass the civil rights laws, so this un-American law may spur Congress to fix our profoundly broken immigration system.
The overreaching of the anti-immigrant forces in Arizona has set the stage for action. It’s up to us to make it happen. Enough! Immigration reform now.
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You people really do not get it do you?The legal citizen is footing the bill for all these illegals.Why do think the police force in Arizona is overburden?Why do you suppose hospitals are near closure?Why do you suppose the unemployment rate is so high there?Who do think foots the bill for housing,schools and welfare?Well I can tell you who, we do legal AMERICAN citizens.With dreams of our own and kids to put through college and parents that need care and have fought hard to make this country great.We are all struggling with high unemployment,health care cost and taxes due to a great extent because of illegal Immigration.I for one do not care who’s fault it is I want it stopped .The sooner the better and I don’t much care how it is done or who does it but this country, no country can afford have 500,000 to a 1 million people come into it at will everyear, and use up resoures.How much oil and water and natural gas goes to keep these folks?They and you with your misguided bleeding hearts will be the death of this country as we know you all should be ashamed for trying to give away what my forefathers have fought for.Don’t give me that crap about all of us being immigrants we are but my forefathers came legally worked hard and built a nation second to none and if the illegal immigrant was willing to do the same.We would not be where we are today.All of you can kiss my ass I will do everything I can to pervent even one illegal immigrant from becoming a citizen until the border is sealed and kept that way.
Amen! to the previous post!! we the people,yes and UNION members too! SAY LOUD AND CLEAR: NO AMNESTY,NO ANCHOR BABIES! SECURE BORDERS AND DEPORT NOW!!!
Dear Dr.,
Unless you’re a blond haired, blue-eyed type, I advise you to stay out of Arizona. They might stop you too, and unless you carry a US passport with you at all times, you could wind up in the slammer with the rest of them.
This law seems tailormade to illustrate the old truth that you can’t take away the rights of others without jeopardizing your own.
WAY TO GO AZ.!!
I support international solidarity of the working class. I substantially agree with the arguments and perspectives put forward in this AFL-CIO article and am glad the progressive labor movement is speaking out against SB1070 and all other such reactionary and unconstitutional legislative power grabs aimed against workers. I totally disagree with the above commentator and resent his/her stupid, aggressive insults. Workers should support workers, on either side of the border. The commentator above should put him/herself in the shoes of a Mexican farmer for and see what he/she would be prepared to do to try to support his family, including risking his/her life to make a decent life! I am heartily sick of the reactionary viewpoint as expressed in the above comment, and will do everything in my power to help overturn the reactionary new Arizona law, which seeks to usurp and overturn my rights and indeed the rights of the above commentator. Hey, whoever you are, while you’re busy spouting off, be sure not to forget to take your ID with you when you next travel to Police State Arizona. You could fall afoul of the “authorities.”
In shame, disgust, and total, active, political opposition to the reactionary views expressed in comment #1, above.
Down with SB1070!
Brother Tom
I guess you feel the same way about scabs too? They are just trying to put food on their tables too! The illegals should show solidarity by staying HOME and not taking jobs from Americans and doing the work of the bosses. They are scabs, and ILLEGAL ones at that.
I can see you have never been on strike in your life! Just what do you say when scabs cross the line? What do you do when they do NOT show solidarity? Give them a free pass? THAT is what YOU are doing. The FACT that you are on the SAME side as the Chamber of Commerce and NAM says it all.
>>>”Gerald Lenoir, director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), says U.S. trade policy has played a big role in creating the immigration problem. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for example, Mexico opened its markets to subsidized food crops from the United States. The result is that 3 million Mexican farmers could not compete with cheap U.S. commodities and lost their land and their livelihood. Many of them, along with their families, have migrated to the United States looking for jobs. Lenoir says:
So, let me get this right, the United States invades the economy of another country and the economic refugees that come here are labeled illegal? What’s wrong with this picture?”>>>
This guy conveniently forgot to mention that the Mexican government had to agree to the free trade policy. He also neglects to mention the thousands of American jobs that have been exported to Mexico putting American citizens out of work!
>>>”The usually conservative daily, the Arizona Republic, writes in an editorial today that immigration policy must be established not by individual states but by the federal government, which must enact comprehensive immigration reform.”>>>
And herein lies the problem. Our federal government IS NOT doing it’s job. And why not? Because they don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. They are of a mindset that they can please ‘all the people all the time’. Guess what you idiots, YOU CAN’T!
As for comprehensive immigration reform? The CITIZENS of the US will NEVER accept AMNESTY. No matter what cutesy name our government sticks on it.
>>>”At Huffington Post, Robert Creamer says [T]he passage of this law may also serve as a wakeup call to people around the country who believe in fundamental American values. In the same way the excesses of Alabama’s leaders helped pass the civil rights laws, so this un-American law may spur Congress to fix our profoundly broken immigration system.
The overreaching of the anti-immigrant forces in Arizona has set the stage for action. It’s up to us to make it happen. Enough! Immigration reform now.”<<<
Our immigration system may well need reforming but not so that it will allow MORE immigrants. We already admit MORE legal immigrants into our country per year than every other country in the world combined. Enough is enough! Just Say NO to Amnesty!
Dr: You have this delusional idea in your head that immigrants are flooding the hospitals, filling our classrooms. That is a crock, no American citizens without health insurance that flood emergency rooms? These immigrants come to America to work, to do the jobs that no lazy American wants to do, that feel they are too good to do “that kind of work”. Immigrants, both legal and illegal pay taxes, shop at stores and are keeping local economies moving and thriving. Sorry, your pathetic statement doesn’t hold water and is definitely lacks credibiility. Remember, history shows the land grabbing whites that invaded Mexico to stake their claim to land, even if they had to kill for it.
I think that illegfal immigrants, whereverthey are from, should not be allowed to stay in my country. They are not trying to obtain citizenship, or a legal driver’s license of social security number. Instead, they are stealing identities, getting into car accidents with ni insurance, leaving the victim with no recourse, and tehy are sending their money back home, where it does our country no good. I am a working, tax paying citizen who has earned the right to government benefits it I need them. I have contributed to the tax pool, and to society. WE WOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO INVADE THEIR COUNTRIES AND TO REMAIN TEHRE ILLEGALLY. WE WOULD BE ARRESTED OR WORSE. Not only de these illegals have a sense of ENTITLEMENT, but they come over here and draw off of our welfare system, our social security system, and they actually think they have a rigth to be here. I wonder what would happen if all of us AMERICANS
It pains me deeply to to read all of these ignorant comments blaming immigrant workers for the shortcomings of our country. It just goes to show how easily even those of us in the labor movement can be manipulated by the multi-national organizations that don’t give a rat’s ass what country we’re from or what language we speak just so long as we can be used as cheap labor. This is Divide and Conquer at it’s finest. So long as employers, when faced with workers who are fighting for better wages, benefits, and a voice on the job, can call the cops on their employees just because they have a ‘reasonable suspicion’ that some of them might be undocumented, we will never be able to build a strong unified labor movement that can take on the corporate powers that rule this country. It is time to quit blaming immigrants for our country’s rampant abuse of economic power and come together to make real change!
The only reason unions don’t back this is because the latino population are the ones that have been most effective organizing.
I think our union leaders are on the wrong side if this campaign and the only way to get are economy going is to remove those who are illegal and put more U.S. citizens back to work. If you remove the cheap labor from the market then the payscales for us U.S. citizens will go up and the more money we make the more we spend.
As those concerned about profiling do have a point the solution is to address those who cause profiling (meaning lawbreakers) is to address those who bring unwanted attention to the rest of the law abiding citizens. Problem solved.
12 million illegals deported means 12 million jobs that the payscales will increase and the burden of our school,hospitals and law enforcement will not explode. Tax and healthcare problems solved.
Are ancestors came here legally and had to prove themselves, it is time for those who want to enter this great country of ours and do the same. No free rides.
A warning to democrats who want the support of illegal and legal immigrants, don’t let this issue be your Scott Brown. There are way to many important issues out there we need resolved than to defend those who are not citizens and bring us U.S. citizens down to illegal immigrant standard.
The drumbeat is getting louder on this issue and you better do the right thing or you will loose both the house and the senate.
To those immigrants who are here legally, why would you want to support someone who comes to this country illegally and brings your pay scale down, reduces your benefits and increases your taxes becuase they probably don’t pay taxes or social security and use the services this country you pay for, for free.
Yikes, is this posting over-blown!
First the Arizona law does not give officers carte blanche to pick up any suspected illegal alien. Officers must have “lawful” contact and reasonable suspicion to investigate a person and may arrest only with probable cause, as required in any other crime.
The sad thing is that AZ was forced to pass this law because the federal government will not enforce the immigration laws already on the books. What we need to do is simple:
1) Institute E-Verify and make it mandatory for all new hires and then go backward for old hires. Honest employees will have time to correct any errors in their info.
2) Start sending out no match letters so that employers will know when they have employees with invalid info. Once again, honest employees will have no problems correcting honest mistakes and those who are using invalid ID will have to go.
3) Finally the IRS should HAVE to notify any person who does not claim 2 or more employers on their tax forms when their SS# is being reported for other employers.
US citizens and legal residents should be able to have their federal government help them, not the illegal aliens that they now protect. The AFL-CIO should drop its cooperative effort with the US Chamber of Commerce to prevent this from happening. When has the US Chamber of Commerce ever worked for the average working stiff?
This law in AZ is the result of our federal government – Democrat or Republican – refusing to enforce our laws and then trying to persuade us that we need to do yet another amnesty today for some enforcement in the future, maybe, someday. Only if we are stupid.
union proud, you don’t know what union means.
According to you, if there were no immigrants, the boss would give us free health care, living wages, a secure pension, healthy and safe work environment and treat us with respect. You blame immigrants for the downward pressure on workers’ living standards and let corporate American off the hook! There is alot of evidence that proves that corporate interests are at the root of workers’ standards being pushed downward. Where have you been? Corporate driven trade and globalization, plant shut downs, union busting, lax enfocement of our labor laws, and right to work laws have driven down workers’ standards. And your answer to all of this is “deport illegals”?
Anyone who follows your reasoning is being led down a sink hole. What was the point of fighting for the Employee Free Choice Act? What was the point of fighting against NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA, and the rest of the free trade deals? What was the point of electing Barak Obama and having Solis as our Secretary of Labor? According to you, we shouldn’t waste our time with all of this because the answer to all of our problems is to “deport illegals”. And your tag is union proud? I’m confused.
Funny how you say “don’t let this issue be your Scott Brown” “your Scott Brown”? Which side are you on, anyway?
To all workers unite….
Let’s get one thing straight. Immigrants built this country. Illegal immigrants today are bringing down our standard of living with the help of corporations. I did not say “immigrants” I said “illegal immigrants”.
You are mincing my words like a politician. I do not expect free health, living wages and a pension because very few employers care about doing the right thing for the people that work for them.
But to attain affordable healthcare and those other items you need to remove those who will jeopardize it through cheap labor.
As for Scott Brown, you see what happened in Mass. and this imiigration issue could be the downfall for the dems if they give illegals amnesty.
If we loose dem control of the house and senate then we will never see EFCA passed and all because of people that are here illegally and chose not to come into this country the proper way.
Legally!!!!!
People say illegals do the work that U.S. citizens don’t want to do. That is not the case, The wages illegals are paid a U.S. citizen could not survive on it.
If you removed the illegals then more than likely the wages will have to go up to get someone to do it.
I would be more than happy to push a broom and mop a floor for a respectable living wage and benefits.
I am sure thousands of U.S. citizens out there would too.
I stand behind my tag name and your tag name is good, just let those wrokers unite in their own country.
Let workers unite in their own country? That is too confusing for me to even try to answer. Boy, perhaps you should learn our history before you say such a thing.
You think Congress hasn’t passed EFCA because of undocumented immigrants? That doesn’t make any sense. Did you forget that the Chamber of Commerce and other employer associations, the GOP, and conservative dems killed EFCA, not undocumented immigrants. In fact, these workers can’t vote and did nothing to elect these anti-worker politicians into office.
For your information, there are lots of undocumented workers who are proud, active, and die hard union members and understand the strength in workers uniting.
Our labor and employment laws cover undocumented workers and we should be glad that they do. Our collective bargaining agreements cover all workers (read it all) Let’s stand up to the boss together and fight for the rights of all workers.
Think about it. If we can all join unions, fight against mis-classification of workers, file complaints against employers who steal our wages, and pressure employers to treat us with respect, then it wouldn’t matter if workers had papers. But we know this is not the world we live in.
We should pass comprehensive reform of our immigration laws in order to take away another weapon that employers use against workers, all workers, including US workers. I know it may not be as obvious to you, but if we really want to protect all workers’ rights, then we should legalize all undocumented immigrants, ensure that our immigration system allows workers to enter when there are jobs (and not allow them in when there aren’t), and penalize employers for hiring undocumented workers.
When we are done with that, we should all fight for fair trade policies that don’t displace workers in other countries and we should fight like hell to protect workers’ rights to join worker controlled unions all over the world. If we really believe that unions are the best way to lift living standards, then we should help workers organize.
Union proud, if you are willing to fight against the boss on behalf of all workers, I’m with you. The moment you start to attack other workers, you are on your own.
All workers unite…..
Do you read everything and comprehend what I wrote or do you just decide to scramble what I am saying.
I did not say congress did not pass EFCA because of illegal immigrants.
We may never see EFCA passed because if the dems decide to protect illegal immigrants it may cost them votes. If you have been following lately more and more states may follow Arizona with some sort of laws barring illegal immigrants or to have them provide documentation for benefits
They are not undocumented immigrants either. They are law breakers which means they are illegal immigrants.
How about standing up for those who came to this country legally and are trying to make a decent living for themselves along with the rest of the U.S. citizens.
Don’t you think those that are here legally to make a good life for themselves will be affected by illegal immigrants.
You blame corporationa for driving down living standards, well don’t you think hiring illegal immigrants is one practice that harms all of us U.S. citizens in keeping the standard of livng up.
I know their are illegal immigrants in our ranks, but by law the unions are suppose to represent them as the unions are not the ones that hired them.
Allowing all the illegal immigrants already here in this country sets a bad precedent and will only encourage more in the future.
As you may know President Reagan did this and not look at the situation we have.
I am not attacking attacking workers who came here the legal way or are born here in the U.S.A. I am not attacking workers in general, but if they came here illegally and draining our economy then they have to go and enter the proper way just like those who came here legally to make a life for themselves. It is the only way to we are going to improve are living standards in this country as well as holding employers responsible also.
This is a good debate, but you will never convince me to be on your side of this issue.
I look forward to your response.
It is a strange calculus that the organized labor movement is using. The intentional lack of border enforcement benefits only the employers who hire ‘under the radar’ workers at slave labor rates.
This is union busting in it’s most basic form unless you consider that there has to be a less apparent agenda – one that has little or nothing to do with sustaining union jobs.
OUR unions, our guilds of the modern age, have been infiltrated by professional progressives who serve powers far beyond and far aside from the interests of the rank and file.
They are spending our dues to support a political agenda that serves none of us. Rather at it’s core they support an unwinding of the economic base that creates our jobs. Taken over their goal line, the unions will become part of a long lost age and we will have been what Lenin called “their useful idiots.”
I think that the Arizona law is very wrong. It is wrong to profile someone because of the color of their skin or national origin. In the state of Washington, you can get an “Enhanced” Drivers License. I have one. You have to show your birth certificate and answer some very personal questions to get one, but, when you go to Canada, just show your license and you have no problem going to and from Canada.
I would think that if Arizona is going to have those awful laws, that the people there would want and force Arizona to have an Enhance license so that they wouldn’t have to carry a lot of paper work around with them all the time.
I have seen times when a non union contractor has hired illegal aliens. You can take pictures of them, and their cars and where they are staying at and hand all that over to Homeland Security and they are not deported. It seems like the only time illegal aliens are deported is when they try to unionize a job. That is not right.
I think that if a business or company is caught hireling an illegal alien, than that company should be fined, and then pay to deport the illegal alien and then give the illegal alien a years worth of US wages. I think that after that happen a few times, that businesses and company would stop hiring illegal aliens.
Right now, what is happening is that US workers are being pitted against illegal aliens in a race to the bottom. It is not right to allow us to be pitted against each other as we are all brothers. Just as illegals come to the US to have a better life, we join and form unions to have a better life.
The only way to keep us from being pitted against each other is to level the playing field so it isn’t cost effective to hire illegal aliens any more. I think that best way to do that is the way I described above.
When companies that hire illegals would have to pay for them to be deported, plus pay fines and pay US wages for a year to those people being deported, then we would have close to a level playing field.
As long as companies can continue to pit us against each other, without cost to their bottom line, we both are in a no win situation.
Hey gldeglf – read the law. Other than a year’s wages, a lousy idea that only encourages repeated infiltrations and gaming the system, you have the beginning of clear thinking.
When Haiti had their earthquake, we were all brothers in the sense that I can feel compassion for them. But when it comes to degrading the labor pool up here they are stealing. Illegal is illegal. Come in right or be tossed out on your posterior along with the kids you birthed here in an attempt to cover your criminal theft.
Anyone who thinks the S.B.1070 is a law that will profile must have something to hide.Everyone MUST obey the laws, no matter what your skin color. If you are here illegally, then you need to go back to your country of origin and come here through the front door with the laws on your side. I got stopped the other day and had to show the cop my Driver’s license, registration and insurance proof. If you are not able to do that, then you must leave the country. By the way we speak ENGLISH IN AMERICA.
Hey Downtown Dan
If you would of read my post, you would of realize that there were times when my union brothers and me were out of a job because a non union contractor hired illegal aliens.
Mahatma Gandhi said An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind. When we spread hate, we play right into the corporate hand. This happen down south. Before there were child labor laws, OSHA, minimum wage laws, black people were brought over as slaves because the businesses didn’t want to pay a wage. Then after the civil war, those black people who were former slaves weren’t hired for the jobs they use to do, even though they had plenty of experience. Instead, the working white people were pitted against them and we still have the bad effects of that racism today.
I don’t hate the brown skin people, they are not the enemy. They are as much a victim as we are. It was a white person, George Bush Sr. that started working on NAFTA and it was a white person, Bill Clinton that signed it into law. That trade agreement was no win for all of us. That trade agreement put a lot of Hispanics out of work. Those people who were put out of work are not content to find a bridge and crawl underneath it and die. They want to support their families and if that means coming to the US illegally, they do that.
It doesn’t matter who is president, if illegal aliens laws aren’t enforce, then you are going to have a problem. I had also posted that the laws were ignored. For laws to work, you have to do more then “read” them. That means making laws that are tough on employers that hire illegal aliens.
There is a saying “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat its mistakes”. In Hitlers Germany, after WW2, some people were asked how they could of let Hitler do the things he did. To paraphrase one person: When they came for the jews, I wasn’t concerned because I wasn’t a jew. When they came for the gays, I wasn’t concerned because I wasn’t gay. When they came for me, there wasn’t anyone left to be concern for me.
The laws that was pass in Arizona are meant to divide and conquer the same way that Hitler divided and conquered those who would oppose them. Just as Hitler made a boogieman out of the jews, some people are trying to make a boogieman out of the illegal aliens and blame them for all our problems.
In history, there was this man, Aesop. He wrote fables. One of his fables was that there was this man. He tied a bundle of twigs together and ask his son to brake the bundle. The son tried and told his dad he couldn’t do it. Then the dad untied the bundle and gave one twig at a time to his son. His son broke one twig at a time. The moral of that story is United we Stand, Decided we Fall.
I, for one, am not going to repeat the mistakes that have been made in history and let anyone or anything put in a wedge and divide my brown skin brothers and me.
Instead, I think we should focus on the real enemy, the business and corporations who want to divide us and engage us in a race to the bottom, when it comes to wages and benefits. I am not going to let them point to the illegal aliens and say that the brown skin people are the problem when they are the problem. I am not going to let their divide and conquer tactic work on me.
Thank You: ALL Workers Unite, gldegl, workersoftheworldunite! and TrueDemocrat for seeing through the corporate misdirection and ignorance and paranoia. It took me a while to do this myself. Before I relised several facts:
1) most hispanic children are as fluent in english as americans
2) NAFTA destroyed as many Mexican and Canadian jobs as it did U.S.
3) The immigration pawn game is happening across the entire planet and only global mobilisation will stop the bleeding (isolationism will not do anything)
4) The wealth expirienced during the 50’s-70’s was do to:
-union membership across all spectrums of people and industry,
-Presidents Roosevelt and Johson’s anti-poverty legislation
-are manufacturing infrastructure supporting countries without their own.
5) Immagration had nothing to do with decrease in jobs. This was do to decreased regulation, reaganomics and extremely laxed mobilisation of union workers.
Several points:
First, my personal opinion is that NAFTA helped business and hurt workers. However, illegal immigration was a problem before NAFTA and statistics on illegal immigration do not show a jump in illegal immigration after NAFTA. Therefore one cannot lay blame there.
Second, there are federal laws against the possession, manufacture, and distribution of controlled substances. States have enacted similar laws. I do not see anyone arguing that drug enforcement is a federal issue and not a state issue and seeking to stop local law enforcement from enforcing state laws. Nor do I see any protesting state liquor laws as enforceable only by ATF. I have yet to see a reasonable argument where immigration is significantly different.
Third, on the subject of racial profiling, this is a statistical matter. If 10% of the population where one race, yet accounted for 40% of traffic stops, I would agree that there is racial profiling by law enforcement. If one looks at the stats for illegal immigration an overwhelming majority are Hispanic/Latino. According to the 2003 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, September 2004), of the 931,557 deportable aliens located by Border Patrol agents in 2003, approximately 95% were Hispanic/Latino. In the US Supreme Court decision US v Martinez-Fuerte 428 U.S. 543 on secondary referrals on a fixed checkpoint, “Thus, even if it be assumed that such referrals are made largely on the basis of apparent Mexican ancestry, we perceive no constitutional violation.” Though it would not hold true for example in New York City, one would reasonable expect Arizona’s illegal immigrants population to be Hispanic/Latino.
Forth, although the illegal population is mostly Hispanic/Latino, just because someone is Hispanic/Latino does not mean they are here illegally. US v Martinez-Fuerte also stated that that did not constitute reasonable cause for a non-fixed point immigration check. So even though Arizona’s law does not define “reasonable suspicion”, there are several Supreme Court decisions that do. Although I believe everyone needs to watch carefully the policies that law enforcement develop to enforce the new legislation, I disagree with the assumption that the will have policies that already been determined to violate people’s rights and open themselves to civil suits.
Fifth, my wife is a Mexican citizen with permanent immigration status. She would have no problem carrying proof of status, as she is already required to do so under federal immigration laws. It only means that she is more likely to be asked for such documentation in Arizona. When we went to Mexico last summer we carried proof of citizenship everywhere we went.
The only thing in this article I agree with is that this will do little to solve the problem of illegal immigration. As long as people see it as an improvement to their condition they will endeavor to come here, legally or illegally. The true problem is that employers easily exploit illegal workers. I grew up in an agricultural area and I have seen employers use illegal workers to violate minimum wage, overtime, work place safety, etc. Attempts at unionization are met with tactics reminiscent of pre 1920s. Granted complaints on the Fair Labor Standards Act and OSHA regulations do not look at immigration status. Illegal workers tend not to be familiar with worker’s rights. Also, they face the additional jeopardy of being referred to immigration as retaliation. If Arizona truly wanted to address its illegal immigrant problem it would work harder to enforce wage and work place safety regulations. If employers did not receive economic benefit, they would not be offering jobs.
As to whether or not illegal immigrants take jobs no one else wants, I have not seen evidence one way or the other. However, the other side of the immigration reform that we have been promised for the last 5 administrations is to open legal work permits for employers that can show a need for workers. A legal work force would be more likely to assert their rights and would have assistance on enforcement, including the right to unionize.
There has been boycotts due to the Arizona Immigration Bill which is widely disagreed upon when the Governor Jan Brewer showed his agreement on that law. Same day will be the festive Cinco de Mayo which is a Mexican celebration for prevailing over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. This is controversial and I am up for an update from the protest.