Activists Travel to Arizona to Protest Controversial Immigration Bill

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Los Angeles immigrant rights activists head to the Arizona State capitol to protest a new bill that would require Arizona law enforcement to inquire about immigration status. Those in favor of the bill, say it is necessary crackdown on illegal immigration and will reduce crime in cities. People against the bill say it will lead to racial profiling and overburden police officers. Hear the debate surrounding this controversial bill that's being called the strictest immigration bill in the country.
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If you live in Arizona, you could get stopped by a police officer for more than just a traffic violation. Arizona Senate Bill 1070, "The Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act," requires law enforcement to inquire Arizona residents about their immigration status.

"What this law says is that Arizonians are very upset about what's going on in their economy," said Jorge Cabrera from the Council for Human Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles. "They're very upset about the lack of action on the side of the government to fix our immigration. They really have gone to the extremes."

Arizona has almost 500,000 undocumented immigrants. Ira Melhmann from the Federation for American Immigration Reform says the bill is a good way for Arizona to protect its citizens.

"You don't have to throw endless amounts of law enforcement resources at the problem what you have to do is enforce the law strategically and rationally," Melhmann said. “When the Highway Patrol wants to enforce the speed limit they don't pull over every speeder. They put enough patrol cars out there, they catch a few people and .everybody gets the message and they take their foot off the gas."

Under the bill police can charge anyone who they "reasonably suspect" to be an undocumented immigrant with a misdemeanor.

Jorge Cabrera thinks the proposed law is discriminatory. "I believe that this will lead to racial profiling and a never list of never ending lawsuits that private citizens will file against our government," he said.

Melhmann disagreed. "That's absolutely a mischaracterization of what SB 1070 does," he said, "What SB 1070 says is that if a police officer in the normal course of his duties pulls somebody over for some sort of infraction--
running a red light, running a stop sign. During the course of carrying out those duties, reasonable suspicion that that individual is violating federal immigration laws, he many not simply turn a blind eye. That police officer then has to act on that. It has nothing to do with profiling. It has to do with reasonable suspicion, which is what police officers do every single day."

If a similar bill was signed into law in California, it would have a tremendous impact on the state. The largest population of the country's 12 million undocumented immigrants live in California. Melhmann thinks California is hurt financially by helping undocumented immigrants.

"Even as the city and county are going broke, they have made it clear if you show up," he said, "With your Mexican matricular card you will have access to all benefits and services that the city and county have to offer. The LAPD has special order 40 which says they are .not to look into immigration status even if they pick somebody up for some other offense."

California passed Proposition 187 in the 1990's. It would have prohibited undocumented immigrants from accessing public services. It was ruled unconstitutional. Despite their differing opinions on immigration, both Mehlmann and Cabrera think legalization is the solution.

"There is no intention for us to keep people undocumented," Cabrera said, "on the contrary, we want people to go through the legal system not around the legal system. That's why we argue that our laws are broken and unjust. and they need to be fixed and they need to be practical."

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is set to sign the bill in the next few days.

Karen Marcus, Annenberg Radio News