By summer’s end, racial profiling in Arizona will essentially be legal, and Gov. Jan Brewer’s signing of unprecedented means through which to deport illegal immigrants will do nothing more than cause moral and bureaucratic chaos in the state.
The law, which was signed on Friday, will give police greater jurisdiction to arrest those they suspect are in the United States illegally. It will also make failure to present documentation, or carry them at all, a crime. The corresponding power to stop someone driving home from work because of the color of his skin or the sound of his speech is an issue beyond personal opinions of immigration reform or policies &- it will serve only to legalize prejudicial racism. A third-generation American citizen of Mexican descent and a Mexican who lives in the country illegally might look the same and might both happen to speak Spanish. And neither should be profiled or detained for either of these things.
Arizona is the first U.S. state to require that immigrants carry documents with them at all times and is setting a dangerous model of legally endorsed bigotry. What justice protects those who are suspected to be in this country illegally but who are actually proud citizens, and, further, those who are also proudly and legally immigrants? Unless a state surplus unknown to the masses has allotted for telepathy in squad cars, the way a person looks to the naked eye will serve as the only cause to detain him or her. Brewer’s urging that “We have to trust our law enforcement,” does not make the law sensible or reasonable &- it gives the state free reign to perpetuate stereotypes and humiliate people who have the right to remain unbothered.
What happens to a person after he or she is discovered to be an illegal immigrant or worker is up for interpretation and is still the subject of discussion. What is not an issue that warrants political debate is making baseless assumptions that someone who is not white might have cheated his or her way into the United States. To abandon Hispanics, a population Republicans have sought out to win elections and who will likely now be sought out by police, is reprehensible. What happens in August and beyond in Arizona will ultimately boil down to personal hatreds and cultural supremacy in the southwest. It seems that in terms of witch hunts, the United States has not learned from its mistakes.
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