Racist Az law - No ID? Go to jail!

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Arizona immigration bill under fire in Washington

by Kasie Hunt - Apr. 20, 2010 11:42 AM

POLITICO.COM

Hispanic lawmakers want President Barack Obama to intervene if Arizona's governor doesn't veto a sweeping anti-immigrant bill that would allow local police to arrest anyone they suspect might be an illegal immigrant.

"The governor of Arizona should veto the bill and if she doesn't the president of the United States Barack Obama should assert the federal government's preeminent role in regulating and enforcing our nation's immigration law," Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), said Tuesday.

The White House declined to comment.

Under the proposed Arizona law, which passed the state Senate Monday, police can arrest anyone on "reasonable suspicion" that they are an undocumented immigrant. If they're not carrying a valid driver's license or identity papers, police could make an arrest.

"The lunacy of rounding up people because they look a certain way or are suspected of being in violation of immigration statutes can only lead to one thing violations of people's basic, fundamental civil rights. Profiling," Gutierrez said.

But while Gutierrez criticized Republicans, he's also firing a warning shot at the White House, which has been slow to embrace comprehensive immigration reform.

"In the end it all comes back to the president of the United States and whether he will put his back into comprehensive immigration reform," Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez warned of electoral payback if Democrats ignore the issue.

"The Republicans are so mean spirited and so anti-immigrant that they simply push immigrants and Latinos into the waiting arms of Democrats," Gutierrez said. "There is a third option for those voters. They don't necessarily have to fill the ranks of the Democratic Party. They can simply stay home."

Supporters of the Arizona legislation say it would give police the tools they need to combat violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants. The Arizona bill's primary author is Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, who said this week that "illegal is not a race, it's a crime."

Pearce is a longtime anti-immigration advocate who once praised a 1950s deportation program known as "Operation Wetback."

"We know what we need to do. In 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower put together a task force called Operation Wetback," Pearce said in 2006. "He removed in less than a year 1.3 illegal aliens. They must be deported."

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has five days to decide whether to sign the bill.

The state law has also received national attention, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) praising the bill after risking his political career to support comprehensive immigration reform in the past. McCain, who is facing a tough primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, called the Arizona law "a very important step forward."

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) criticized the state's senior senator for his switch. "It is a complete turnaround from previous positions," he said of McCain. "The campaign of J.D. Hayworth has turned him around a couple of times," Grijalva said.

The Department of Homeland Security, which enforces the border, would not comment on the proposed Arizona law.

"DHS continues to focus on smart, effective immigration enforcement that places priority on those dangerous criminal aliens who present the greatest risk to the security of our communities, on employers who continue to drive illegal immigration by knowingly hiring undocumented workers, and by surging law enforcement resources at the southwest border," said DHS spokesman Matt Chandler.

The Arizona bill will likely face an immediate constitutional challenge because immigration law is the purview of the federal government and also because the Constitution protects people from search and seizure without probable cause.

Grijlava took the unusual step of calling on companies to stop doing business in his state in protest of the law.

"There has to be an economic sanction for this," Grijalva said. "Our economic sanction is: Do not do business with a state that is propagating the idea that separate but equal treatment under the law … can be codified."