Show Me Your Papers: Arizona’s New Immigration Law - Good Policy or Proliferation
of Anti-immigrant Sentiments?
By Yaida O. Ford
Chair, WBA Young Lawyers' Division
On Friday, April 23, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law America’s toughest immigration enforcement law to date. With approximately 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona, the animosity has been growing amongst certain communities who blame many of the state’s economic woes on the seemingly uncontrollable growing immigrant population. Arizona has been cited for its immigration issues: it is the top state for illegal border crossings; one third of the state’s uninsured are illegal immigrants; and the state has one of the lowest rates of youth participation in the work force due to, as some say, competition with illegal immigrants for jobs. Thus, it is no surprise that 70 percent of Arizonans support the new law. While Arizona faces real immigration challenges, will this new law help the situation or make matters worse?
Many have voiced their concerns with this new law, among them the chief of police of Tucson, Arizona, Roberto Villasenor. One of his concerns is that local law enforcement does not have the resources to engage in the type of enforcement this law requires. Indeed, the new law would call for police officers to proactively engage in enforcing federal immigration laws without the federal dollars to support this effort. Another concern is how the local police are to carry out the law. How will the police determine that a certain person arouses the “reasonable suspicion” required to question them about their status? The risk is that the police will run afoul of constitutional restrictions prohibiting law enforcement officials from using race or ethnicity as the sole factor for a search or stop. But the issues delve deeper than this. When questioning witnesses or victims to crimes, the new law allows an officer to ask someone about their status because it is in the normal course of an investigation. This means many Arizona residents will be less likely to report crimes.
The ramifications will also affect the local economy. Employers will be penalized under the new law for not only hiring day workers who are illegal, but also for knowingly transporting illegal workers. Will this law help increase the number of available jobs for citizens? Will it reduce the amount of money the state spends on social services and force “illegals” to return to their native countries? Or will it jeopardize the rights of citizens who are here legally and fall prey to wrongful enforcement of this new law? There are divergent views on all of these issues that cannot be discussed in this article. But the nation will watch closely to see if this law will go into effect as scheduled this summer or die the same death as California’s proposition 187, signed into law in 1994, which limited access to public benefits to citizens and documented residents (Proposition 187 was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal court).
At this time, one cannot be certain what the fate of the new law will be but its passage has given way to hysteria and racial animus in Arizona that will only give way to fear, unreported crime, public health concerns of fewer people utilizing health care services for fear of being questioned about their immigration status and parents possibly keeping their children out of school for similar reasons. One thing is sure - federal lawmakers must address this issue now as the bill’s passage is partially the result of congressional inaction. However, with elections right around the corner, elected officials, including Arizona Senator John McCain, are shying away from the issue. Now that Arizona has “bucked” on the federal government and its local immigrant population, I am certain many of its citizens and those all across the nation will call their elected officials to task on this issue.
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