Arizona Immigration Law is Racial Profiling

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Arizona Immigration Law is Racial Profiling Racial profiling is a practice that not only degrades but also promotes hatred and anger in the society. The act entails biased law enforcement by the authorities where ones

race or the ethnical background forms the basis for either law enforcement or not. From the UNs principles that outline basic human rights and the US constitution, more so the Bill of Rights, the practice is deemed inhuman and should never be practiced. However, the Arizona state has instituted a bill that seeks to indirectly and unconstitutionally legislate racial profiling. According to Sternberg and Acosta (2010), the Arizona law, SB 1070, promotes racial profiling [and infringes] upon the exclusive role of federal government to regulate and enforce immigration issues. (4) The law is unconstitutional and if put into practice will demean the citizens and visitors of Arizonas civil rights. The new law goes against the constitution and should not be implemented as it gives the police undue power to deal with the perceived illegal immigrant without much regard to the supreme law. Several arguments can be fronted to discredit the new Arizonan laws, on the basis that it is unconstitutional. The fact that the law gives the security agencies more powers arrest and detains the aliens, the process is open to abuse. The very basic arguments that being in Arizona without registration documents would be treated as a trespass go against the constitution. The new law also encourages racial proofing as it is open to abuse by the police who are racial in nature. Since the police under such circumstances are not required to obtain any arrest warrant means that the system has loopholes that are open to abuse. For example, the only requirement is a mere suspicion that one is an illegal immigrant. Since the US is a land of dynamic cultures and races, it is likely that there will be racially instigated prejudices among the police. They will most likely cite the clause on reasonable suspicion as the motivating factor for the wanton arrests (Gabriel et al, 2010). With this

Arizona Immigration Law is Racial Profiling phrase, it can be argued that the police would be presumed to know and recognize the illegal immigrants from the face value. Reasonable suspicion should however guided by a legal conduct, with focus on innocence and need for further investigations (Lockney &

Friese, 2010). As such, the police will act with an informed opinion , psychological biases and racially inclined assertions. This clause thus allows the police to come up with an illegal system that guarantees and promotes racial profiling. The law also seeks to curb transportation and employment of those who enter Arizona illegally (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2010). While this is a good move, it may not help much as it has some loopholes and challenges of enforcement. Making it illegal to employ the aliens imply that the employers cam be prosecuted for going against the law. However, the constitution guarantees everyone right of employment and the employers may not be in a position to effectively authenticate the legality a persons stay in the US. Since the law seeks to ensure that every person walks with and wags his or her identification documents at the police on demand, it is likely that racial profiling may occur. This is because such people as Latinos and blacks may be subjected to racial profiling merely on the ground of their race. The argument is that most people from these races form the bulk of illegal immigrants in the US as a whole. It can therefore be argued that the police will always target these people in the process of law enforcement and ask them to produce the registration documents or the other forms of identifications. Those against the law argue that the real targets are the Latinos and the blacks. This is unconstitutional since no law can be made with a particular community or race in mind.

Arizona Immigration Law is Racial Profiling The constitution allows for fundamental freedoms and its spirit is to protect everyone whether innocent or a convict. At the same time, the American constitution seeks to enforce ethics and values as well as integrity in all aspects of police and public engagements. However, by requiring that the suspiciously looking immigrants carry their identification papers every time everywhere is a dehumanizing act that is against the constitution. Fitz and Butterfield (2012) calls it Show Me Your Papers Law. The US would be viewed as a country that segregates its people and have them carry identification papers everywhere. As such, the immigrants who may be in the US legally and may not have the papers whenever demanded by the police would be detained and presumed culprits, until they prove their

innocence. As such, the fact that the police can on demand want these papers on account on suspicion implies that the principle of innocent until proven guilty will be negated. The constitution also vests in the justice system the power to judge ones innocence or guilt. As such, this law goes against thus maxim of power separation. In the US, the constitutional mandates the federal government to ensure adequate enforcement of the policies relating to immigration. As such, the law is deemed to go against the US constitution .however, the new law adopts a parallel immigration enforcement program to the one maintained by the federal government through the pretext of conflating civil and criminal provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (Sternberg & Acosta, 2010, 4). By attempting to devolve the enforcement of the immigration laws and policies , the law seems to attempt to usurp powers of the federal government. Such an act is deemed unconstitutional and unenforceable. Since the constitution in the US is supreme, the new

Arizona Immigration Law is Racial Profiling

laws are deemed illegal. The constitutionality of the law is thus not addressed well and may put the state and the federal governments at loggerheads. Evidently, there is might be confusion as well as confusion with regards to the enforcement of the new laws and the immigration policies. Such efforts duplication may imply that the real culprits are not punished while the state officers attempt to carry out racial profiling in attempts to enforce the laws. Since the constitution calls for creation of one coordinating agency to deal with the immigration issues, creation of state specific laws will not only be unconstitutional but also create obstacles to Department of Homeland Security in the process of implementation of the federal policies in a broad, fair and more effective manner. Racial profiling is also augmented by the fact that the law mandates Arizonans to sue any agency that fails to fully enforce the new laws. In conclusion, the new law is unconstitutional and negates the spirit of the supreme law. The law also undermines the fundamentally crucial human rights that Arizona through the US is obliged to adhere to (Eliane, 2010). This law should therefore be nullified and the federal agencies allowed to enforce the immigration policies and related laws.

References

Arizona Immigration Law is Racial Profiling Eliane E. (2010). UN Human Rights Experts Say Arizona Immigration Law Could Violate International Standards, THE EXAMINER Retrieved from http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nation/un-human-rights-experts-

say-arizona-immigration-law-could-violate-international-standards-93510164.html Fitz, M. & Butterfield, J. (2012). Arizonas Show Me Your Papers Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Whats at Stake? Retrieved from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/04/pdf/az_social_implications.pdf. Gabriel et al., Arizona Senate Bill 1070: A Preliminary Report On Legal Issues Raised By Arizonas New Statute Regulating Immigration. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1617440 Lockney, H. & Friese, M. (2010). Constitutional roadkill in the courts: looking to the legislature to protect north Dakota motorists against Almost unlimited police power To stop and investigate crime. North Dakota Law Review. 86: 1. National Conference of State Legislatures (2010). Arizona's Immigration Enforcement Laws. Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/immig/analysis-ofarizonas-immigration-law.aspx Sternberg, M. & Acosta, P.(2010). Report on the constitutionality of Arizona immigration law S.B. 1070. Committee on Immigration & Nationality Law, New York.