The new law makes it a crime to be in Arizona illegally, and requires police to question people about their status if they suspect they may be illegal immigrants. Supporters of the law say it will help stop illegal immigrants from entering Arizona. Critics of the law say it will encourage racial profiling and may lead to hate crimes. President Obama has called the law “misguided” and called for lawmakers to work on immigration reform.
What do you think about Arizona's new immigration law?
Scott Hinkley:
I think Arizona's new immigration law is despicable. I am certain that many of the families who condemn the latest migrant population are the same families who exploited past populations rather than extending those job opportunities to the American citizens they now seem so concerned about protecting. I think that this ignorant law has its roots and strength married to the long-tired notion of white-entitlement. I have listened to too many complaints about how the Irish and the Italians had to make it as legal immigrants and struggle without help, but wasn't it the treatment of those waves of immigrants what sparked labor movements, not to mention the extensive help they received during the Great Depression?
I am all in favor of boycotting Arizona and it's products. I think America has become so vast and isolated in it's local politics that it is very important that States choosing adopt radically regressive policies feel the sting of our disapproval. Don't call it un-American just because you are too stupid or lazy to learn another language or share your civil liberties. If you made as little money as illegals do, you would demand tax exemption anyway.
Nikki Lorenzini
I have so many mixed emotions about this that I don't know where to start. I understand why people would want to come to the U.S. There is more opportunity here than there is in other countries. They can get fed, have a place to stay, get health care, the whole nine yards. They also know that even if they do it the illegal way, people will still help them out and give them jobs. I understand that we have it fairly easy here.
Everyone knows the saying, “one bad apple can ruin the whole barrel.” That is what is happening here. I am sure that there are plenty of immigrants that are coming here legally; filling out the proper paperwork and doing everything legitimately. I know that there are a lot of immigrants in my grandmother's apartment complex who are doing things the right way, and know more about their benefits and rights than someone who was born here. So why would I want someone here doing things illegally, stealing our money, stealing our resources, and leave us high and dry?
Yes, I am sure that this law will help with racial profiling, but don't blame the law for racial profiling. It has been going on for years, this law has only given the state a reason to do it legally. Is it right? No. Do I agree with racial profiling? No. I am sure that there is an easier way for Arizona to crack down on their immigration laws. Yes, they are misguided in their approach, but I do not have an answer on how to fix it.
David Loftus
The law is redundant and (unless Arizona plans to kick in considerably more funding for the U.S. Border Patrol or beef up its own state police) nearly useless as state policy. I doubt it’s going to make potential illegal immigrants pause about coming over the border; the only change will be that they’ll try to get across the state faster. I would contend that its only real effect -- and possibly the true, subconscious reason Arizonans wanted it passed -- was to give existing law enforcement officers more reason to hassle anyone who looks vaguely Hispanic.
Racial profiling is already a fact of life, I’m sure -- perhaps no more in Arizona than in any other state. As for hate crimes, I don’t think the perpetrators of such offenses are the type to take their cues from state legislation. Arizona is already feeling the heat: as of Tuesday, six groups have canceled meeting or convention plans in the state, and more calls for a boycott are coming in. The Obama administration is looking into challenging the law in court on constitutional grounds, and even a supporter of the restrictions, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, admitted that “good people in Arizona are so afraid of an uncontrolled border that they passed a law that I think is unconstitutional.”
Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who helped Arizona draft the legislation, defended its constitutionality by saying, “the bill will withstand any preemptive challenge” because it reinforces existing federal immigration laws and creates no new immigration crimes. Well, which is it? Either it does something new that Arizona thought necessary, and therefore merits close legal scrutiny and possibly the outcry that has greeted it; or it does nothing new and therefore is little more than a political sop to the state’s white voters. In any case, Arizona has a long history of being the opposite of progressive: many have mentioned its opposition to the Martin Luther King holiday for three years after the rest of the country had adopted it, but few have recalled its bitter fight against the Equal Rights Amendment in the early 1980s. I think the state is in the process of falling flat on its face again.
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