The recent Arizona Immigration and Enforcement Bill signed in Arizona has stirred up a lot of debate on racial profiling, and whether or not this bill encourages it, across the country. After reading the bill, I believe the bill does nothing to outwardly encourage or condone racial profiling.
Below is actual text present in the bill:
20 B. FOR ANY LAWFUL CONTACT MADE BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY
21 OF THIS STATE OR A COUNTY, CITY, TOWN OR OTHER POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS
22 STATE WHERE REASONABLE SUSPICION EXISTS THAT THE PERSON IS AN ALIEN WHO IS
23 UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES, A REASONABLE ATTEMPT SHALL BE MADE,
24 WHEN PRACTICABLE, TO DETERMINE THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF THE PERSON. THE
25 PERSON'S IMMIGRATION STATUS SHALL BE VERIFIED WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
26 PURSUANT TO 8 UNITED STATES CODE SECTION 1373(c).
34 J. THIS SECTION SHALL BE IMPLEMENTED IN A MANNER CONSISTENT WITH
35 FEDERAL LAWS REGULATING IMMIGRATION, PROTECTING THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF ALL
36 PERSONS AND RESPECTING THE PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES OF UNITED STATES
37 CITIZENS.
38 Sec.
Although the bill does not outwardly encourage or condone racial profiling, I can envision opportunities for individual abuses of power (such as racial profiling) to occur.
Picture a situation where a person gets pulled over for speeding. When asked to show identification, this person doesn't have any identification on them. At this point, a reasonable suspicion could arise that this person may not be a citizen of the United States. There could be certain give aways, such as the inability to speak English or an offensive, out of the ordinary demeanor (after all, there is always some sort of personal, gut instinct feelings to manage and act on in the actual enforcement of a law). As long as Arizona law enforcement processes all of these cases the same, regardless of the person's race, it is clear to me that no racial profiling is taking place. However, if Arizona law enforcement doesn't go through all the regular protocol for confirming citizenship with a white person compared with a Hispanic person, then clearly the law is at least providing an outlet for law enforcement officers to racially profile on an individual basis. That being said, this law is simply stating that enforcement of already existing immigration law should be taking place, so perhaps this new law is not even really providing the outlet for racial profiling, but just reminding law enforcement that one exists.
My quick analysis of the situation is that, as long as checks are in place to ensure fair administration of this law by law enforcement, there is nothing wrong with mandating that all citizens of Arizona carry documentation indicating they are in fact a citizen of the United States (regardless of what form that identification is in). I am assuming that all naturalized citizens eventually get proper state identification, and that once they have that identification, they are not required to carry along any other documentation (just like I generally have to carry nothing more than my state issued identification in my normal travels).
You can read the entire bill for yourself here: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf
Until next time...
Joe
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