Arizona

Tuesday, 06 July 2010 09:55 Written by  Administrator
By Ebony L. McCline 

f After months of controversy on the issue and the implementation of Arizona’s new immigration law quickly approaching, government officials and civil liberty organizations still have a lot to say.

 

After Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) put her final stamp of approval on SB1070 in April, supporters and non-supporters of the new immigration law, which would essentially give law enforcement officials more power to enforce current immigration laws, erupted in a series of comments, boycotts and any other form of expression that exposed a particular stance on the issue.

 

Arizona already has an agreement with the Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) agency, which states that law enforcement officials can detain illegal immigrants who are criminals until ICE picks them up for deportation.

 

However, a section of the new law, which was sponsored by Sen. Russell Pearce (R-AZ) and will take effect July 29, reads as follows:

 

A law enforcement officer, without a warrant, may arrest a person if the officer

has probable cause to believe that the person has committed any public offense

that makes the person removable from the United States...”

 

Addy Bareiss, program director of the Arizona American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), says the new law is simply unconstitutional.

 

“It violates the guarantee of equal protection under law, infringes on free speech and allows unreasonable search and seizure, all without addressing the real problems of smuggling and human trafficking,” Bareiss says.

 

However, the Obama Administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are doing their part to ensure that Arizona’s new law will not violate any one person’s civil rights, says DHS Spokesperson Matt Chandler.

 

“The president ordered DOJ [Department of Justice] to examine the civil rights and other implications of the Arizona law, and that review will inform the government’s actions going forward,” Chandler adds.

 

Bareiss and the ACLU’s disdain for the new law doesn’t just end with words. The ACLU, along with a number of civil rights groups, filed a class action law suit that would essentially challenge the new law, Bareiss says. The preliminary injunction would stop the new law from going into effect.

 

Within the last year, DHS has made progress in its effort to improve border security within a legal framework, says Chandler. The Southwest Border Initiative was launched and among many aspects includes having approximately 20,000 Border Patrol agents.

 

“By dedicating unprecedented resources to the Southwest border in terms of manpower, technology and infrastructure, we have fundamentally transformed the state of U.S. border security from where it was during the 2007 immigration debate,” Chandler says.

 

DHS is also bridging the gap with Mexico creating partnerships with Mexican government that involves a new cross border communications network for public safety, he says.

 

However, the main issue the ACLU and other organizations that do not support the new law has is that illegal immigration is supposed to be a federal issue, Bareiss says. If local law enforcement is too busy with a federal issue, local concerns may take a back seat.

 

“Mandating local officers to enforce federal immigration law means those officers will have less time to protect our communities,” Bareiss adds.

DHS is concerned with local protection as well.

 

“We continue to work with Congress on comprehensive reform of our immigration system, which will provide lasting and dedicated resources to secure our borders and make our communities safer,” says Chandler.

 

With all this said, Bareiss’ sentiment that the new law is quintessentially un-American remains primarily because the atmosphere of intimidation and fear the law creates goes against core beliefs as Americans, she says.

 

Our government should prevent people from being investigated and detained based on the color of their skin, not mandate it,” says Bareiss. “We don’t want Arizona to be a show-me-your-papers state.”  

  

 

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Ebony’s Facts: Ebony L. McCline is a new staff writer for GlossMagazineOnline.com. She can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

 

 

 

 

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