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Shame on Arizona

By Jeralyn

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer today signed the draconian anti-immigrant bill passed by the legislature into law. (Background here.) Before the signing, President Obama criticized it:

The Arizona law, he added, threatened “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”

The bill blatantly encourages racial and ethnic profiling. While it goes into effect in August, court challenges are expected immediately. The ACLU says the bill threatens civil rights and public safety. [More...]

"By signing this bill into law, Brewer has just authorized violating the rights of millions of people living and working here. She has just given every police agency in Arizona a mandate to harass anyone who looks or sounds foreign, while doing nothing to address the real problems we're facing."

The specifics:

The new law...requires police agencies across Arizona to investigate the immigration status of every person they come across whom they have "reasonable suspicion" to believe is in the country unlawfully. To avoid arrest, citizens and immigrants will effectively have to carry their "papers" at all times. The law also makes it a state crime for immigrants to willfully fail to register with the Department of Homeland Security and carry registration documents. It further curtails the free speech rights of day laborers and encourages unchecked information sharing between government agencies.

Will the Obama Administration act on its professed principles and opposition to the law?

Currently, the administration has a prime opportunity to take a stand on the issue, because the solicitor general will soon file a brief explaining the administration's position on Arizona's unconstitutional employer sanctions law, passed in 2007, which creates a state-level immigrant employment verification and sanctions regime.

The ACLU is calling on Obama to take a stand in that case:

"Actions speak louder than words," said Omar Jadwat, a staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. "As the federal government sits on its hands, Arizona's anti-immigrant brushfires have turned into a firestorm. We call on the administration to file a brief categorically opposing Arizona's employer sanctions law to demonstrate its commitment to stopping anti-immigrant laws that interfere with federal authority, wreak havoc on businesses and cause discrimination against Latinos."

The Immigrants Solidarity Network says:

Let’s chant even louder. Let us be who we are: humans with dignity, with pride and a strong identity. Let us not allow them to portray us as “the poor ones” that have to be protected because they are afraid. No, we are people in resistance, noble, peaceful and brave.

The civil rights crisis in Arizona goes beyond the issues of immigration. Neither should our fight be reduced to a legislative strategy in Washington, DC. This is about the future of our country. We are either a country of exclusion or inclusion. We are either a country where we all have the right to life, liberty, and the search for happiness, or a country where people are judged and their opportunities limited based on the color of their skin.

The Anti-Defamation League weighs in here.

I hope everyone boycotts Arizona. Not a dime today, not a dollar tomorrow, until this law is found unconstitutional.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 24, 2010 (boomark / email).