Immigration Status Dept: The Arizona law encourages police to go further, to ascertain the immigration status of those they stop. Despite an amendment forbidding the use of race, colour or national origin as a criterion, it is folly to believe that racial bias won’t affect the law’s implementation. Like it or not, illegal immigrants are a vital economic resource in the U.S. According to the Pew Hispanic Centre, a non partisan think tank, one in four farm workers in the U.S., and one in ten Arizona workers is unauthorized. Concerted attacks on illegal immigration, through legislation like Arizona’s and round ups by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has somehow spared their employers; legislation making it a criminal offence to employ an illegal immigrant is almost never enforced. U.S. federal law is clear: unauthorized residency is illegal, and punishable by a $100 fine or 30 days in jail. But the torrent of people coming into the country – the U.S. has around 12 million unauthorized residents, seven million of whom are from Mexico – has led to more aggressive measures, with walls erected along the Mexican border. The police practice of stopping people on the street to demand their papers is alien to North American democracy. Who will be stopped? People who look Hispanic, including citizens of long standing, who aren’t likely to be carrying their papers. These people may then feel a need to carry their passports, which in itself separates them from their fellow citizens. A law meant to combat illegal immigration may humiliate citizens. As
reported in the news.
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@t criminal offence, illegal immigrant
11.5.10
