Arizona Lawmakers Pass Toughest Immigration Law in USA making Arizona Police State

PHOENIX (AP) April 19, 2010 ― Arizona lawmakers on Monday approved one of the toughest illegal immigration laws in the United States.

The immigration bill now heads to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who has five days to sign it, veto it or do nothing and allow it to become law.

Senate Bill 1070 would, among other things, make it a state crime to be in the country illegally and require local police to enforce federal immigration laws. If the governor signs it, Arizona would be the first state to criminalize illegal immigrants.

The Senate approved the bill 17 to 11. The only dissenting Republican was Sen. Carolyn Allen, R-Scottsdale.

The House of Representatives made changes to the bill last week, and it had to go back to the Senate for approval.

Brewer, speaking to media at an unrelated news conference Monday morning, said she had "concerns" about SB 1070.

"I am always concerned about all of those things," Brewer said when asked about several specific provisions of the bill, including one that would require police to ask anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally to produce an "alien registration document" such as a green card. Those who don't or can't produce one would be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor and face a minimum $500 fine.

Still, Brewer declined to give any indication as to whether she would sign or veto the legislation, which has gotten national attention.

"I'll look at it, go over it and review it completely when it hits my desk," she said.

Nearly 30 people gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of Brewer's Glendale home Sunday night in a bid to convince her to veto the bill. Dozens more carried signs opposing the bill in front of her office Monday morning. The protesters said the bill could increase racial profiling in Arizona.

Protestors and advocates on both sides of the issue have spent the past week holding rallies, issuing statements, appearing on national talk shows and bombarding Brewer's office with e-mails and phone calls.

U.S. Sen. John McCain threw his support toward the measure on Monday.

"I think the people of Arizona understandably are frustrated and angry," the Arizona Republican said. "It's also a commentary on the frustration our state Legislature has the federal government has not fulfilled its constitutional responsibilities to secure our borders."

Republican J.D. Hayworth, who is running for McCain's Senate seat, has been issuing news releases in support of the state legislation for several weeks.

Opponents include Mexico's embassy, American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Valley Interfaith Project and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Several groups, including National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, planned a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to ask President Obama to intervene. Other groups already have promised a legal challenge if the legislation becomes law.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona is considering litigation if the bill becomes law. Executive director Alessandra Soler Meetze said there are two options.

One would be to wait until somebody is "injured" by the enforcement of the law. The other would be to challenge the legality of the law and try to get a court to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the law from going into effect.

"We don't know what the format would be," Soler Meetze said.

ACLU's primary concerns about the bill are how it would impact police resources, that it would target Hispanics and it includes no training requirement for law enforcement.

"Rather than going after human smugglers, drug smugglers, this gives police authority to stop and question people who fail to carry their paperwork," she said. "This will give police officers the green light to engage in profiling and harass people who look and sound foreign."

Arizona law enforcement groups are split on the bill, with a union for Phoenix Police Department officers supporting it and a statewide association of police chiefs opposed.

The Arizona Police Association represents 18 local law enforcement associations and approximately 9,000 rank and file officers.

Executive Director Brian Livingston said his members support SB 1070. He said the bill doesn't force officers to focus on immigration issues, but simply permits them to determine an individual's immigration status "if they choose" to do so. Officers are still required to develop a reasonable suspicion first, he said.

"People are becoming unduly concerned," Livingston said. "Police are professionals. They know when and in what scenario a determination of immigration status is necessary. If you see someone of color, of a different dress, no matter how unusual, you can't just stop and interrogate a person."

He said his association will recommend officers be trained in search and seizure laws, but he said that is something departments should easily be able to handle without added cost.

Although the public was not allowed to speak at Monday's hearing, lawmakers on both sides became heated.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, told the Senate: "Illegal is not a race, it's a crime."

He said he expects the state to be sued over the law, and he expects the law to prevail.

Sen. Richard Miranda, D-Tolleson, voice shaking, spoke out against the bill. He said everybody wants something done about the state's border problems. But he said this bill is not the solution.

"People are so desperate for an answer to this situation, they'll drink the sand thinking it's water," he said.

He said by passing this law, Arizona is sacrificing its civil rights and encouraging racial profiling.

"It's popular that I hear we're going to take handcuffs off police," Miranda said. "What we're doing with this bill is putting the handcuffs on the community."

Sen. Ken Cheuvront, D-Phoenix, said the proposed legislation has resulted in Arizona being called the "Alabama of the 21st century" and a police state. He said national groups are urging boycotts.

"This is extremely un-American," he said. "To have the rest of the world look at the state of Arizona in this light is very damaging."

Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor echoed that sentiment.

"Is this really going to be a state that people are going to want to come to, whether to visit on a temporary basis or as a business wanting to relocate here?" Landrum Taylor asked. "Our state will be going completely backward."

Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, took it even further.

This piece of legislation are tactics that were used in Nazi Germany," Aboud said of the requirement individuals be able to show paperwork.

Sen. Rebecca Rios, D-Apache Junction, said this legislation will cost financially struggling cities millions in lawsuits and have a "chilling effect" on public safety by making people afraid to report crime and forcing officers to focus on immigration instead of crimes like human smuggling or drug trafficking.

"It's very popular to jump on the bandwagon and scapegoat a race of people," Rios said. "But the devil is in the details. This bill will not do what many have said it would. It will create more problems for our state."

Several in support of the measure said they are simply doing what they have to do in the face of the federal government doing nothing.

"The U.S. Constitution says the federal government shall protect states from foreign invasion," Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, said. "The federal government has not done that. People are being attacked … Arizona needs to act."

The bill is the latest aimed at cementing the state's reputation as the leader in tough and controversial immigration-control measures. Arizona has about 460,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Currently, immigration offenses are violations of federal law, something most local law-enforcement agencies cannot enforce.

Under the proposed law, an individual is presumed to be in the U.S. legally if they can provide an officer with an Arizona driver's license or identification card, a tribal identification card or any federal, state or local government-issued identification.

If they don't have those documents, they would have to produce the "alien registration document."

The bill also aims to stop day-labor solicitations by making it illegal to seek work from a road or sidewalk if doing so slows traffic. It also makes it a crime to pick up someone if a driver "knows or recklessly disregards the fact the alien is here illegally."

Vincent Picard, a ICE spokesman in Phoenix, declined comment on the Arizona legislation and referred a reporter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Washington headquarters. The agency did not immediately respond to an inquiry.