I'm surprised no one else has posted about this yet... During Friday's lunch, many of our classmates and peers dressed up in all white and put tape over their mouths (Dia de silencio) to protest against the Arizona Immigration Law.
For those of you who do not know what the Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070 is, it is a bill that requires officials and agencies of Arizona to enforce the passage of illegal aliens, stopping to hire or soliciting work under specified circumstances, transporting, harboring or concealing unlawful aliens and is largely supported by Senator Russell Pearce and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.
This has become a very controversial topic because many people believe that this bill conflicts with their Constitutional rights and racially profiles certain ethnicities, specifically minorities of Latin decent.
I want to know: What do you think of this bill? Does it violate our constitutional rights (why/ not)? How do you get around the process of stopping those who look "'illegal" without stopping those are are legal? How can you have reasonable suspicion when looking at two different people and assume one doesn't have papers? Also, Senator Russell Pearce argues that race is not an ethnicity (If they are illegal, they should be punished, it doesn't matter about race)? What do you guys think? Are illegal aliens really taking away American jobs? Should they be turned away from America if they are trying to make a better life for their kids?
Sorry I have a lot of questions (You don't have to answer them all)
Sunday, May 2, 2010
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8 comments:
I think you meant to say that he was going to enforce deportation of illegal aliens, not the passage. While racial profiling is wrong admittedly it is a singular race they are after and thus it is smarter to look for illegal immigrants that have the same racial indicators. However, the law itself isn't actually effective, we tried similar tactics that did not work here in California, the harsher ones were voted down due to the unconstitutional aspect. Ultimately this law will not effect Californians seeing as though we don't live in Arizona, and the best that we can do is register to vote and rally others to vote against any legislation that comes through like the Arizona law.
I also feel the need to state that boycotting the state of Arizona will do nothing to help anything and mostly just seem silly. (I'm not even joking this is happening in certain places.)
I think that this bill has both a good and an evil side. While it is true that it has basically legalized racial profiling, it's also trying to reduce the number of undocumented immigrants into the US. I'm not saying that I support the bill,(I was one of the many who wore white), but the way the government is going about the whole thing is all wrong.
I could be (and probably am) wrong, but isn't this bill kind of in violation of the Civil Rights Bill, and the search and seizure clauses of the Constitution?
I believe that this bill is a 50/50 kind of thing. I understand that the U.S. is watching out for their citizens and when people who are not citizens come they have to use saftey. Arizona is the nations murder capital and we have to understand why. If this was going on in our hometowns we would agree on the same thing. Yes, I can make a point clear by stating that this is discrimination and rasicm. The U.S is trying to stop it but this has made it worse.
Well to address the consitutional rights question, I researched whether or not did illegal immigrants have constitutional rights. I found that past Supreme Court cases denied the fact that constitution only pertains to legal citizens [http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/rightsandfreedoms/a/illegalrights.htm] That being said, I think that any argument saying that "people" in "'"We the People of the United States'" refers only to legal citizens is wrong.
The question "[a]re illegal aliens really taking away American jobs?" isn't really new. Outsourcing has been a concern of many Americans for quite a long time now. This isn't really different either. I'm not entirely sure how this issue of "illegal aliens stealing jobs" would unfold. However, it might be possible that Americans just want nice wages? (The number of workers would increase, so the demand for them will decrease, thus decreasing wages). I'm not entirely sure, because I haven't experienced the other side's arguments. It is evident, however, that they are discontent.
I too was one of the people wearing white and being (mostly) silent that day. I don't think that it's fair to legalize racial profiling, especially when it happens regardless of what the law says. I think it is somewhat good that the American system is trying to prevent illegal immigration, but I feel that this may be the wrong way. If anything, the easiest way to deal with the problem might be prevention. If the United States takes a few more precautionary methods such as tightening (if possible) the border patrol, I feel like they wouldn't have to clean up for the potential mess that illegal immigrants make. Illegal immigrants are kind of like invasive species- some are beneficial and actually help our environment/economy and some are detrimental. However, the best way to deal with both is to prevent them in the first place.
Like Jodi said, I think this bill has its ups and its downs. Racial profiling can be a very, very sensitive topic for many. Especially for those targeted in the immigration bill.
I'm just wondering, but do constitutional rights even apply to non citizens?
This bill does seem really silly but is this even actually effective? This bill does have its positive side to it while it also has it's negative sides. Even though we live in California it wont affect us but i'm sure it affects peoples families that are illegal. So I would say that on the negative side it does seem really racist and on the positive side it keeps illegal people out of our contry. Good point Katie, thats a really good question so I decided to look it up online and I found a reliable website that does say that the bill of rights applies to everyone even illegal immigrants. So basically if an immigrant legal or illegal was prosecuted under the criminal code. On the website it says, "immigration proceedings are matters of administrative law, not criminal law. (As a result, the consequence of violating your immigration status is not jail but deportation.) And Congress has nearly full authority to regulate immigration without interference from the courts. Because immigration is considered a matter of national security and foreign policy, the Supreme Court has long held that immigration law is largely immune from judicial review. Congress can make rules for immigrants that would be unacceptable if applied to citizens." and i totally agree it is a sensitive topic for many people but what can we do?
I can't say I agree with the law at all. I agree with those who spoke about how the idea of racial profiling is a sensitive subject. I mean all legal citizens have nothing to worry about because if they have ID on them nothing will happen, and although in reality illegal immigrants probably should be sent back if they are discovered (because they're illegal), we have no right to just accuse people and demand identification. My dad is a Latin-American immigrant but he doesn't "look" like it at all (don't worry he is legal), so what looks like an immigrant? I do understand the idea behind the law, but I don't agree with it and think that there must be some better, and more Constitutional, way to go about accomplishing their goal.
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