U.S. Congress and Arizona Deliver One-Two Punch to Immigrants

[pampango]

"This week, as Congress leaders retreated on the immigration issue, the Arizona House of Representatives advanced with a vengeance, passing a bill that amounts to a scorched earth policy by granting unprecedented powers to local police powers to stop, question, and detain people they suspect may be illegal immigrants. By failing to act on immigration reform, Washington is ceding authority to those who have more respect for guns and prisons than for human dignity.

And that's the way the nation's immigration policy, generally labeled "broken" by all sides of the political spectrum, gets made. As a result of Congressional inaction, Arizona, like states and municipalities around the country, is filling the vacuum by fashioning its own immigration policy, one that in the case of the Grand Canyon state is more redolent of the values of the Old West frontier days than the sensibilities of civil liberties advocates.

In a party-line, 35-21 vote, the legislators passed a Republican-supported bill expanding the power of police officers to go after illegal immigrants. In the language of the measure, "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." The measure provides no instruction on what might constitute a "reasonable suspicion." And even though the bill does contain a caveat warning that a law enforcement official "may not solely consider race, color or national origin," the use of the word "solely" clearly does allow police officials to use race or color.

Civil libertarians believe that should the bill become law, the courts will eventually declare it unconstitutional. Another Arizona measure penalizing employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants is currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on the challenge that states cannot pre-empt federal authority on immigration matters. That 2007 law was signed by then Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, now Secretary of Homeland Security. At the time, Napolitano said the bill was necessary "because it is now abundantly clear that Congress finds itself incapable of coping with the comprehensive immigration reforms our country needs.""

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-kaye/us-congress-and-arizona-d_b_538369.html