¿documentos por favor?Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill Friday that requires AZ police in her state to determine whether a person is in the United States legally, which critics say will foster racial profiling but supporters say will reprimir la inmigración ilegal.
The bill requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect that they're in the United States illegally. It also targets those who hire illegal immigrant day laborers or knowingly transport them. The second act should have been the only act - but hey, who am I to judge what civil liberties or that silly prior restraint clause of the Constitution says... it's not like I work for the ACLU or something.
The Republican governor also issued an executive order that requires additional training for local officers on how to implement the law without engaging in racial profiling or discrimination. About that, how are you going to pull THAT off with a straight face? You're going to have to assault some white grandmas at the grocery store, and you're STILL not going to be taken seriously. This is going to go over about as well as not having Dr. MLKJr's birthday as a day off -- to quote a wiser comedian than I, "You gotta be pretty racist to not want a day off from work?!"~Chris Rock.
"This training will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the United States," Brewer said after signing the bill.
"Racial profiling is illegal. It is illegal in America, and it's certainly illegal in Arizona," Brewer added. Which, as long as you ask everyone - it's okay. And that's SO NOT OKAY!
What will Arizona's immigration law do?
Previously, officers could check someone's immigration status only if that person was suspected in another crime. Whoa! Did you see how that was written? It is biased toward treating illegal immigration as the first crime! I'm on to you, you CNN Wire Staff that I cut'n'pasted this article from!
Mrs. Brewer's executive order was in response to critics who argue that the new law will lead to racial profiling, saying that most police officers don't have enough training to look past race while investigating a person's legal status.
"As committed as I am to protecting our state from crime associated with illegal immigration, I am equally committed to holding law enforcement accountable should this stature ever be misused to violate an individual's rights," Brewer said.
She added that the law would probably be challenged in courts and that there are those outside Arizona who have an interest in seeing the state fail with the new measure.
"We cannot give them that chance. We must use this new tool wisely and fight for our safety with the honor Arizona deserves."
The bill is considered to be among the toughest immigration measures in the nation. Supporters say the measure is needed to fill a void left by the federal government's failure to enforce its immigration laws.Read the full text of Arizona Senate Bill 1070 (PDF)
Its leading sponsor, state Sen. Russell Pearce, said this week, "Illegal is not a race; it's a crime."
"We're going to take the handcuffs off of law enforcement. We're going to put them on the bad guy," said Pearce, a Republican.
Another Republican state Sen. Frank Antenori said the biggest reason he supported the bill was because a rancher in one of the counties he represents was murdered by someone who crossed the U.S. border with Mexico illegally. He said the person of interest in the killing had crossed the border numerous times and cited other similar violent crimes.
"The citizens of this state are tired of the catch and release that is going on by the federal government where they grab people, they process them, and they take them back and drop them on the other side of the border," Antenori said. "They just come back, and we have no border security down here."
After the signing, the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, which had opposed the measure, issued a statement saying, "law enforcement professionals in the State of Arizona will enforce the provisions of the new law to the best of their abilities."
The state's largest police union, the Arizona Police Association, is in favor of the law.
And so do Arizona VOTERS: Which explains everything.
Fifty three percent of likely Arizona voters are concerned that the state's tough new law targeting illegal immigrants will also be used to violate the civil rights of United States citizens.
The majority of them support it anyway.
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