Arizona Immigration Law: two very different views.

“In April 2010, Arizona adopted the nation's toughest law on illegal immigration, provoking a nationwide debate and a Justice Department lawsuit”(Archibold 1). The Arizona law was written with aggressive points that were made so 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona would go back home. Some of the controversy that has been made is that it is known for being a discriminatory law against Mexicans, because it only targets one specific type of illegal immigrants, and also, it promotes racism, something that the United States says it never does. Law SB1070 is important, because it not only involves people and their lives, but also, it involves the economy and relations of a country. Law SB1070’s main purpose is to identify, take legal action and deport illegal immigrants. There are two sides of the story “opponents have called it an open invitation for harassment and discrimination against Hispanics regardless of their citizenship status” (Archibold 1). While people that are with the law say it will result in less violence and drug issues and at the same time provide more job opportunities for Americans. I think this law is not fair and should be changed. My argument is Arizona should not have a big participation in the control of illegal immigration. I think that illegal immigration control is not in Arizona’s power or any other states. It is the responsibility of the federal government and should be taken care of by them only.

Law SB1070 makes police officers, when it is necessary, detain people they think are suspects without authorization and verify their status with federal officials. The law also says it is a state crime not to carry immigration papers. It also allows people to sue local government if they think the federal or state immigration law is not being made properly. Illegal immigration started in the 1920’s and become a big problem in the early 1980’s. In 1875, a federal law was made that prohibited the entry of convicts and prostitutes. Although this law affected a small percentage of immigrants, it is what started the distinctions of legal and illegal immigration. From 1881 to 1920, during the largest immigration wave, 23½ million immigrants came to the United States from all over the world. Most people don’t know really where law SB1070 came from. In the year 2009, two men in Benson Arizona were offering a deal, they were selling a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants; they said they would get a big amount of money from each prisoner daily. That’s because prison companies like this one had a plan to create a new business model to lock up illegal immigrants. And, the plan became Arizona’s immigration law, One day before the law took action, a judge made Arizona block some parts of the law because of its controversial content. Some of the things that were blocked included parts where officers could check a person’s immigration status while applying other laws and that required and immigrants to carry their papers at all times. Arizona is the first state to ask immigrants to know federal requirements to carry identity documents about their legal presence in the United States.

As a controversial topic that includes one of the most powerful countries in the world and its old neighbor, people have divided into two different opinions about if it should be or shouldn’t be done. People that agree with the Arizona law say that violence has increased and become more active in Arizona’s border areas. This started “since the murder of Cochise County rancher Robert Krentz by a suspected illegal immigrant in March, politicians and the national press have fanned a perception that the border is inundated with bloodshed and that it's escalating” (Wagner 2). Violence will always exist no matter what the situation is, so they can’t blame illegal immigrants, because not all are bad people. Dupnik, the sheriff of Pima County, said “This is a media-created event, I hear politicians on TV saying the border has gotten worse. Well, the fact of the matter is that the border has never been more secure" (Wagner 3). Another issue is that supporters say the law will apply better immigration laws than the federal government. According to U.S. Border Patrol statistics, up to 50% of the arrests of illegal immigrants occur in Arizona. The Obama administration has said its priority is to focus on illegal immigrants who are involved in crime or are dangerous. The Department of Justice should be handling immigration since it is their responsibility, not individual states.

On the other hand, people against the law have made a big effort to raise their voice to be heard. This includes not only Hispanic people, but also American citizens, and even celebrities, like Lady Gaga who said “We have to be active. We have to protest. . . I will yell and I will scream louder," the pop singer told the audience at the US Airways Center. "I will hold you, and we will hold each other, and we will peaceably protest this state" (qtd Sacks 1). Opponents of the law say this leads to racism and discrimination to Hispanics. Lourdes Medrano from The Christian Science Monitor says "Racial profiling is illegal. It is illegal in America, and it's certainly illegal in Arizona" (1). Applying this law allows police officers to stop anyone who they think looks like an illegal immigrant. What does an illegal immigrant look like? Does an illegal immigrant dress differently? The second thing is that not all the people that come illegally to Arizona come to do bad things. “Immigrants are actually helping the USA economy with billions of dollars, and they actually spend more on government taxes rather than government services (Welfare,WIC, etc.)” (1). This also has to be with jobs, most of the jobs illegal immigrants do are the ones Americans don’t want to do and at the same time are the ones that are a base in the U.S.A economy.

Arizona should think twice about this controversial law that will not only affect immigrants and their families, but also the economy of a state and the discrimination against people. Also some cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco had said they are against the Arizona law. So, why instead of spending hours making a law, wouldn’t it be better to support illegal immigrants by helping them through the process of becoming a citizen?

Works cited

Archibold, Randal. “Arizona Enacts Stringent Law on Immigration”, New York

Times, April 23, 2010. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html> 28 Nov 2010