The anti-immigrant bill that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law last weekend is shocking. It takes profiling to a whole new level. It requires that police demand proof of legal residency from anyone about whom they have "reasonable suspicion...that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States."
The alleged "alien" need not be committing a crime or other misdemeanor to be detained under this law. "A person is guilty of trespassing ..." if he/she is "present on any public or private land in this state" if he/she lacks authorization to be in the United States. In other words, the new law requires that people carry what amounts to an internal passport -- shades of the ugly days of the Soviet Union and apartheid-era South Africa.
Representative Raul M. Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat, suggested that the nation's business community protest the law by withholding convention business in the state. This could be an effective means of protest, but innocent business owners and their workers would suffer if this were to take effect. However, it must be noted that, in the late 1980s, it took the loss of the Super Bowl to prompt Arizona voters to reinstate a Martin Luther King holiday in the state.
According to Linda Greenhouse, there is some hope that the Arizona law will be overturned. In an op-ed piece in Tuesday's New York Times, Greenhouse wrote, "Supreme Court precedents make clear that immigration is a federal matter and that the Constitution does not authorize the states to conduct their own foreign policies."
Time will tell.
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