Home > Our Blog > Round-Up of Opinion on Arizona Immigration Law

Blog Post

Round-Up of Opinion on Arizona Immigration Law

Posted April 26, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

The Arizona Republic hit the new law hard in a Saturday editorial with the title “Arizona Politics Hits a Low Point.” The editorial in the state’s largest newspaper says:

A fundamental principle of law is that it should protect the innocent. Of all the damage made possible by Gov. Jan Brewer’s signature on Friday to Senate Bill 1070, the worst is not the harm to the world’s judgment of Arizona or to this law’s economic consequences. The worst effect is its grave potential for causing harm to innocent, taxpaying American citizens who no longer can feel certain of the law’s blindness.

That is the terrible harm of it. SB 1070 lifts the blindfold of Lady Justice and commands her to see one different from the other, irrespective of innocence. Brewer’s televised signing ceremony for this harsh, unnecessary legislation constitutes the low point of an administration we have come to admire for its often surprising grit in the face of hard times. We held out hope for more.

Whether Arizona pays a price for indulging the whims of state Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, is no longer the issue. We are paying a price. Not since the dismal days of our nationally infamous fight over a holiday to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has the profile of Arizona descended this low.

It isn’t as though the potential consequences of this law are unapparent. We have been down this road before.

The terrible “Chandler Roundup” of 1997 still stands as a warning of what may lie ahead. Then, like now, local police officers demanded proof of citizenship of people they suspected might be in this country illegally. Scores of American citizens lacking “papers” were cuffed. An international outrage erupted. SB 1070 opens the door to the return of those brutal neighborhood-dividing days.

Also Friday, Brewer signed an executive order to establish law-enforcement training she hopes might mitigate the worst potential effect of SB 1070, racial profiling. A nice gesture, certainly. But a few hours of additional training is unlikely to alter the now-evolving relationship of local police to their citizenry, a relationship made infinitely more difficult and attenuated by the signing of SB 1070.

We are not blind to the political challenge facing Brewer. She is a Republican facing stiff competition in an approaching election, and not signing SB 1070 likely would have doomed her candidacy.

That is her political problem, however. Not Arizona’s.

This is very bad law. And this is not the end of the fight against it.

The Arizona Star, the state’s second largest newspaper, also came out against the law. Columnist Sarah Gassen also had a piece in the paper in which she warned her fellow Arizonans that if the law stands, the rest of America will profile them- as racists.

Seth Meyer’s Saturday Night Live Weekend Update on the Arizona law is getting a lot of replays on the morning news shows:

This week Arizona signed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country, which would allow the police to demand identification papers from anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. I know there are some people in Arizona worried that Obama is acting like Hitler, but can we all agree that there’s nothing more Nazi than saying, `Show me your papers?’

There’s never been a WWII movie that didn’t include the line, `Show me your papers.’ It’s their catchphrase. Every time someone says `Show me your papers,’ Hitler’s family gets a residual check. So heads up Arizona, that’s fascism. I know, I know, it’s a dry fascism, but it’s still fascism.

Mike Lupica takes a slap at the “patriotism” of people who want to racially profile Latinos.

Local New York pols ripped the bill.

Sen. Schumer said:. “This law is mean-spirited and I’m opposed to it.”

Mayor Bloomberg said the law will hurt American competitiveness because “[A]s a country, America will be badly hurt if more states follow Arizona’s lead. Foreign investment and tourism are critical to our national economy, and this new law sends exactly the wrong message to international companies and travelers.”

Cynthia Tucker at the Atlanta Journal Constitution says the law is “odious”.

The nation’s largest spanish-language newspaper, La Opinion, called for a boycott of Arizona.

And that is just a small sample of the tone of outrage against the Arizona law.

Tags : arizona, sb 1070

Permalink Comments