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Jan Brewer (R), the Governor of Arizona, signed SB 1070, the draconian immigration law which would mandate law enforcement to seek the proper documentation of anyone in the state suspected not to be in the country lawfully, at a ceremony just a moment ago. Brewer, the former Secretary of State who replaced Janet Napolitano as Governor when she became the Secretary of Homeland Security under President Obama, faced pressure from both sides of the immigration divide. Ultimately, she bowed to the xenophobic forces on her right, whose support she needs if she wants to win election (she’s in a tight primary at the moment).
Brewer responded to critics in a speech after the signing ceremony, saying that racial profiling is illegal and that law enforcement would be properly trained to handle the new law without depriving anyone’s civil rights. She noted that her critics were “waiting for us to fail” and would twist any incident arising from the law for political advantage, forcing them to be even more vigilant in implementation. But she said that she acted because the federal government had left a vacuum in Arizona and failed in its immigration policy.
Protesters outside the venue mostly opposed the bill.
The Arizona Republic has a report on the signing.
Hispanic leaders addressing the hundreds of protesters at the Capitol immediately vowed to wage a legal fight.
The new immigration law will require anyone whom police suspect of being in the country illegally to produce “an alien registration document,” such as a green card, or other proof of citizenship such as a passport or Arizona driver’s license.
It also makes it illegal to impede the flow of traffic by picking up day laborers for work. A day laborer who gets picked up for work, thus impeding traffic, would also be committing a criminal act [...]
Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox said afterwards that the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican-American Defense Fund have already promised to fight implementation of the law.
“This is only the first step of a long battle, and I don’t lose,’” Wilcox said.
The President blasted the Arizona law in a speech at the White House today.
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Unbelievable.
Or so I would have thought a few years ago.
Where are the people who freak out at the thought of having to carry a “national i.d. card?”
Where are the people who remember the Soviets, teh Nazis, and other notorious totalitarians who are well-known for demanding of ordinary citizens, “papers, please?”
And how is someone who appears to provide probable cause to a local cop for demanding their papers, but who happens to be a natural born citizen, like, say, me, or my (3rd generation Mexican American husband), or for that matter the Prez, and therefore has no “alien registration card” or other papers on him supposed to prove the negative?
Better re-release that Cheech Marin movie, “Born in East L.A.” Maybe that’ll get people thinking a little.
Oh, no, it won’t. All those blond blue-eyed, light brown-haired, Scots-Irish, otherwise Anglo folks will simply assume it won’t happen to them, and therefore it’s perfectly all right.
And they will b ehalf right. Grrrrrrrr.
I wish I had the money to afford to go to AZ, use some good tanning spray, and see what happens…. I certainly wouldn’t have a either a green card or an AZ drivers’ license. And I can’t afford a US passport, so…??
I do have a friend of Japanese ancestry who goes nowhere out her home state without her passport…shegot hassled after 9/11.
We are becoming what we (used) hate.
I will not be traveling to AZ any time soon, that is for absolutely sure.
Unbelievable that native-born people need to carry their passports. You’re so right, this is what we used to hate, used to point to as what made us different.
Legacy of Bush/Cheney fear fear fear all the time fear.
But O is not doing much to change it.
David, I think the law could require more than a passport or Arizona Driver’s license.
I think this is the text of the law,
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf
Which says the determination can require “THE PERSON’S IMMIGRATION STATUS SHALL BE VERIFIED WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PURSUANT TO 8 UNITED STATES CODE SECTION 1373(c)”
Which would mean they would have to get the INS to tell them what your status is. This means a cop could detain you with a passport, if he still suspected you were violating the law, he could say he thinks your passport is fake, and then detain you until he gets a response back from the INS, which could take awhile.
It won’t happen to them. YEP, that’s why we have a country that doesn’t give a shit that people were tortured to death that were innocent-or even it they weren’t it would still be immoral and against all conventions of the modern civilized world-tortured to death for them and they have no qualms.
I always gave a shit because not only was it immoral-I would have loved to say at a Thanksgiving dinner to the “good people” that are Americans-so how do you feel about those people that were tortured to death to keep us “safe” you all fine with torturing and murdering people no? But it’s just not done. No wonder I’m angry.
But I also gave a shit because I was smart enough-not like the majority of this stupid country to realize if they can torture and murder the other guy-that one day they can and one day very soon-they will do it to me. But nobody is smart enough in this country to understand a thing about fascism. Instead they worship it.