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.
