The governor of the US state of Arizona on Friday signed a tough new law targeting illegal immigrants, which critics claim enshrines racial profiling and US President Barack Obama branded “misguided.”
One of the most severe measures on immigration in the statute books ignited fury among immigrant groups, and a fierce legal and political row, just as Democrats consider launching a comprehensive immigration reform bid.
The law, signed by Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer, allows police to question and detain anyone in the southwestern border state they believe may be an illegal immigrant, even if they are not suspected of committing a crime.
It would also require anyone in the state suspected of being an illegal immigrant to show some kind of document proving citizenship, like a “green card” permanent residency document or a passport.
“This bill supports law enforcement and safe neighborhoods and strengthens the laws of our state,” Brewer said at a signing ceremony. “It protects all of us, every Arizona citizen and everyone here in our state lawfully.”
She denied the law would lead to “racial profiling” by police officers.
“I will not tolerate racial discrimination or racial profiling in Arizona,” she said.
Opponents of the law say that if police demand papers from someone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant, and they turn out to be a US citizen, their constitutional rights will have been infringed.
A long legal battle is likely over the law, possibly centering on a clause of the US Constitution that protects a citizen against unreasonably being stopped and searched.
Obama, in a rare presidential intervention on a state matter, earlier described the law as “misguided.” He said he ordered top officials to monitor the situation “and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation.”
At a naturalization ceremony for immigrant US service members at the White House, Obama said the measure threatens to “undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”
Bill Richardson, the Hispanic governor of the neighboring state of New Mexico, described the measure on CNN as “a terrible piece of legislation” that nevertheless shows “the frustration of a lot of Arizonans that recognize that we do need comprehensive immigration reform.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the law was “irresponsible,” but was “a reminder of the need for urgent, bipartisan action at the federal level to enact comprehensive immigration reform.”
Immigrant lobby groups, pressuring Obama and his Democrats to move on reform despite testy election-year politics, said the new law was a travesty.
“This legislation is not just about immigrants,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice. “It’s now open season on all Latinos and it’s an absolute travesty that Arizona lawmakers would go to this extreme in the year 2010.”
“It might as well be Mississippi in the 1960s,” he said, referring to the civil rights struggle.
Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said Brewer’s move “shows a stunning lack of judgment and is an insult to our nation’s Constitution.”
“This law only appeals to people’s fear and their understandable anxiety about the economy, and does nothing to serve Arizona, much less our nation,” he said.
Immigration reform appears to be back on the agenda for Democrats, as they approach mid-term elections in November, which could loosen their control of Congress.
Obama has promised advocates who want a path to legal status for 11 million illegal migrants that he will take up the issue, but only if he wins Republican support.
The politics of an election year and a 9.7 percent unemployment rate have many observers doubting whether political momentum can be built on such a volatile issue.
Some observers believe Democratic leaders see the potential of squeezing Republicans on immigration reform ahead of the election, since the issue is important to Hispanic Americans, a growing and powerful voting demographic.
Should the White House win passage of immigration reform, they would likely get a boost among Hispanics in politically significant states like Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
Should they fail, and Republicans be blamed for blocking the move, the opposition party might be damaged in those same states.
Attempts to pass immigration reform failed in Congress in 2006 and 2007 in a bitter political environment similar to the current climate on Capitol Hill.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese