Born Free…maybe

If you haven’t heard about Arizona’s newest immigration law (ABC article featuring a sheriff with the ca-hones to say he won’t enforce it). It’s legal racial profiling. To sum up the new law, any person suspected of being an immigrant can be arrested if they aren’t carrying papers with them. That means anyone with an accent, darker skin, or a Mexican flag on their backpack has to carry their “papers” on them at all times. There are many many Americans who will be profiled under this new law, there are many many people legally here that will be profiled under this law, and maybe if they’re lucky they’ll find one or two illegal immigrants. The immigration system is flawed, not the people who want to come here. This is a country of immigrants, immigrants who trampled on the land of the original indigenous population (and in fact still DOES trample on Native American rights, but that’s another post altogether), but a land of immigrants nonetheless. I hope the courts find this law to be unconstitutional because it’s outrageous that such a law was passed. Although I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, this is the state that in 1987 rescinded Martin Luther King day and didn’t reenact it until 1992. It’s a sad week for human rights in Arizona (and Oklahoma)

Updates on the backlash (4/29):
An Arizona police officer is suing the state for the right to not enforce the law.
Students in Arizona speak out against the new law, hoping to kill it before it goes into action this summer.
The stats that are being used to support the law are wrong, the truth tells another story.
Obama is against the new law and top lawyers are working on ways to challenge the law.