Blogocentric Formulations

Arizona Immigration Law

So I've been loosely following this new immigration law that Governor Jan Brewer signed into law in Arizona, requiring law enforcement officers to determine if people are in the country illegally upon "reasonable suspicion." Opponents are worried that this is going to usher in an era of racial profiling, and I have to say that I agree with them. In a state with an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants (and almost 2 million legal residents of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity), I have to wonder what "reasonable suspicion" entails. How do you tell a legal resident from an illegal one? What does an illegal immigrant look or act like?

Are law enforcement officials going to consider ethnicity alone grounds for reasonable suspicion? Are they going to start stereotyping by profession and start hauling in day laborers? The law doesn't state what documentation is sufficient to prove legal status, so is everyone going to have to start carrying around passports just in case they get stopped by a cop?

I understand the need for immigration reform, but a law that ambiguously empowers government officials to challenge legal residency based on "reasonable suspicion" is just opening the doors to the same racial profiling issues that have plagued other states for decades. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that all citizens be treated fairly under the law... and if a person's ethnicity in Arizona is the basis for "reasonable suspicion," that's unconstitutional and a violation of their civil rights. And if ethnicity can't be used as a basis for "reasonable suspicion," then that begs the question of what can be used to enforce this new law?

Seems to me this is a misguided attempt to address a growing issue... and an issue that, as I understand it, is a federal issue. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that only the federal government has the power to set immigration policy. Depending on what the state of Arizona does with the illegal immigrants they uncover, this could be construed as an issue of a state overstepping their authority.

All in all, I can't help but think this new legislation is a bad, bad idea.