Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070

It is astounding to me how many people actually believe that our country is beyond racism. It is easy for whites, including me, to forget all the privileges we receive daily solely because of the color of our skin. It is much more difficult to recognize that our power and privilege comes at the detriment of others. People who do not discuss race relations and claim that our nation is now ‘colorblind’ are ignoring the facts. They say that liberals are racist for not jumping on the Pleasantville bandwagon. These political pundits are either under the misconception that ignoring racism will make it disappear, or they have a much more sinister plan at work. Maybe by convincing people that racism doesn’t exist, they can exploit the system while calling all of their critics crazy. After all, how can you exploit a system that doesn’t exist?

While I’d like to believe that these pundits are just misinformed, recent legislation has shown a much darker side. Arizona has passed Immigration Law SB 1070. This law proclaims that law enforcement officers, with “reasonable suspicion,” have the right to question individuals on their immigration status.

“For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person.”

Since “reasonable suspicion” is so vaguely defined, this means that officers may stop anyone who looks like an illegal immigrant and ask them for their identification papers. What exactly does an illegal immigrant look like? Hispanic? Black? Asian? But certainly not white. So police officers have every right to pull over a Hispanic driver, solely based on his or her race, and demand to see identification. American citizens, on their way to work, school, or home can be stopped and questioned on a whim. These American citizens can have their daily lives disrupted repeatedly, causing them to be late to work or picking up their children from school. And god forbid accidently leaving your ID at home. I have a feeling that if the roles were reversed, if white middle aged men in suits were being stopped and interrogated on the streets, we would call this law a gross invasion of our privacy. What’s next? Houses searched in the middle of the night? Temporary aliens forced to sew yellow stars on their shirts so that we can keep close watch over them? The unbridled discretion of law enforcement officers resembles that of a totalitarian regime. They don’t even need warrants for arrests:

“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”

Unchecked power goes directly against the principles of democracy we were founded on. We have both state and federal laws so that neither one gets to powerful. Separation of powers ensures that no one branch of the government is more dominant than the others. These officers in Arizona are not answering to anyone, which leaves ample room for corruption. This racist law cannot stand!