Intro
Many individual states have been dissatisfied with federal inaction on immigration. One step towards immigration enforcement has been the 287(g) program mentioned before, which expanded the authority of local and state law enforcement officials to enforce civil immigration violations. This sparked fear among the community that police would deport individuals for minor incidents for something as simple as traffic laws. Still dissatisfied, many states took it into their own hands to enact laws against the flow of illegal immigrants. The Arizona SB 1070 law was one of the first of many policies that states have began implementing in order to counter the flow of undocumented immigrants. It’s purpose was to discourage and deter the unlawful
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For example, their arrest rates plummeted even though the number of criminal investigations rose up back in 2008 (Policing Borders, Pg.100). In their intention to fight illegal immigration, the Maricopa County Department created an extensive distrust between the latino communities and law enforcement authorities. The department's tactics against immigrants have also been very expensive resulting in very few major arrests. The department’s “crime suppression” tactics involve patrolling Hispanic neighborhoods without any evidence of crime being done. This violates policies that intend to prevent racial profiling (Policing Borders, Pg.101). When police promote the use of racial profiling, targeted groups become deviants in the eyes of the community and it becomes a social norm to stigmatize against these groups, in this case unauthorized immigrants. Since this analysis of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department, one of many counties in Arizona, before the implementation of SB 1070, the results today could possibly be tremendously …show more content…
By surveying police chiefs in communities with populations of over 65,000 a few things were found. City policies and police practices have significantly influenced each other. However, a little under half (46%) of the police departments were said to have no policy (Enforcement of Immigration Law,Pg.17). Because they have no policy, it is up to the departments to decide themselves how to deal with unauthorized immigrants. Decisions the departments make would later influence many of the cities policies that would later be implemented. The studies also found that if there were an actual written policy regarding racial profiling, there would be significantly less levels of immigration enforcement. Another interesting discovery was that many of the researched influences for policy making such as, the demographic change within the community and the political context in the community, don’t really influence policy making. The act of labeling a condition as a public problem is more influential in shaping policy agendas. The flow of undocumented immigrants to the U.S. has even been labeled as an “invasion” to the West, from not only Mexico but all immigrant communities. Many media sources and politicians began using this type of vocabulary and descriptions in order to target these “invaders”and make them out as a threat. This act of labeling immigrants as “members of
1070 which made it illegal for immigrants not to carry their documents and authorized police to detain people they ‘reasonably’ suspect are unauthorized.” (Renwick). Unfortunately, much of this policy was found to violate or infringe upon the immigrant’s rights. “Last year, the Supreme Court struck down most of Arizona’s immigration legislation, siding with the Obama administration and immigrant right’s activists who argued that Arizona’s law intruded on the federal government’s well-established authority over immigration” (Lane). Although this state law was argued in the Supreme Court, the controversial “papers, please” clause was allowed to remain in effect.
Arguably, law enforcement engaging in an intense narcotic crime crackdown in Caldwell, Idaho will encounter more Hispanic Americans than White Americans as the population of Hispanics is more than that of the White Americans. This would not be deemed a racist based crackdown, however, if the same police were relocated to Vermont, containing 96.2% of Anglo-Americans, targeting the Hispanic population may very well be considered Racist and unjust. A behavior that was justified in one state now brings forth a very important question. Were these police officers acting on a subconscious level or a conscious level? Where were the officers from, Caldwell Idaho, they are used to seeing a large majority of Hispanics being involved in the drug trade, so when relocated it would only make sense that these same police officers would pay closer attention to the Hispanic population. Police officers making such a move should do their research as well as the prospective employer as it is crucial that the new police officer fits in and can accommodate to the needs of the community by protecting their rights on an individualized
On Monday night, the Denver city council passed an immigration ordinance that forbids city officials from asking about anyone’s immigration status or requiring anyone to discuss it. This law makes it difficult for the federal government to track and arrest immigrants. As a result, people have become fearful that these immigrants will cause harm to the public through robberies and murders. Many people are afraid of the unknown and seeing the kind of damage immigrants have done in the past, it automatically makes people assume that every immigrant is the same. For example, the field director of ICE made a statement that “this irresponsible ordinance...deliberately obstructs our country’s lawful immigration
This law was sending a very strong message to all of the illegal aliens living in Arizona. The SB-1070 was written deliberately with aggressive measures intended to promote to the estimated 460,000 illegal aliens to go home (About, 2011). The issue with some parts of the bill was that it was racially profiling, and it promoted discrimination against mainly immigrants. The federal judge also stopped the section of the law that made it a crime for any for any foreign resident living in the state of Arizona to carry immigration paperwork at all times. In addition, the judge also stopped the part where it would make it a crime for any illegal or foreign resident living in the state of Arizona to solicit, perform, or apply for work. This gave illegal aliens living in state of Arizona a big relief to know that those main parts of the bill were stopped, giving them the advantage to continue to move forward with their lives instead of worrying about getting deported.
Thesis Paraphrase: Romero (2006), in her article titled, “Racial Profiling and Immigration Law Enforcement” uses the case study approach of the “Chandler Roundup” in 1997 to analyze the use of racial profiling by immigration law enforcement and to document the racial impact on both citizens and undocumented immigrants.
One of the most imminent threats looming within American society is race relations. America is a melting pot of different races, cultures, and religions, yet the matter of racial profiling still remains prominent today. By definition it is considered “an activity carried out by enforcers of the law wherein they investigate or stop any individual in traffic or round up people of the same race or ethnicity for crime suspicion” (NYLN.org ). This profiling has become a significant catalyst in the tension that has been ensuing between minorities and the government. Hostility has grown due to the apparent and intentional targeting of “brown people”, and
Illegal immigration at the U.S. - Mexico border is a growing problem, and the death toll is rising as more people are attempting to illegally enter the United States. As a result of an increasing number of people trying to enter into the United States illegally, the border is now being guarded by an increasing number of border patrol officers. The United States implemented different laws and operations to prevent more illegal immigration from Mexico into the United States. The ‘Operation Gatekeeper’ was introduced in 1994, which increased the number of Border Patrol officers. The most recent and controversial law was passed in Arizona, which essentially ‘allows’ officers to use racial profiling to check legal status of anyone in that
In this paper I argue that S.B. 1070 should be not be upheld for two reasons. First, in ways that will be explicated below, S.B. 1070 directly conflicts with federal immigration law; thus it is preempted according to the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Second, the law is unconstitutional because it allows for discrimination by police officers on the basis of race or national origin. This Note contends that the Ninth Circuit correctly affirmed the decision of the lower court to find S.B. 1070 preempted by federal immigration law; however the Ninth Circuit should have also found that S.B. 1070 is unconstitutional on discriminatory grounds. Part II discusses the evolution of the relevant case law. Part III of the Note illustrates the relevant portions of S.B. 1070 and the District Court’s reasoning in United States v. Arizona. Part IV explains why the Ninth Circuit correctly affirmed the decision that S.B. 1070 is preempted by federal immigration law and expounds how the law is also discriminatory on the basis of national origin against Hispanics. Finally, Part V comments on the possible consequences of S.B. 1070 and the effect of a Supreme Court decision to either affirm or reverse the injunction.
Racial Profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspect someone of having committed an offense. Racial profiling against Hispanics, when I mean Hispanics are people from North American, South American and Central Americans. An example of racial profiling against Hispanics is by; the color of our skin, which the majority skin toned (Color) is brown but not all of them, some may be different color and are Hispanics. Sadly, our identity is defined by the color of our skin and are targeted and threatened with deportation and thinking that we are all illegal immigrants and discriminating with hurtful words that express that we do not belong here in the United States, even though some were born in the United States and supposedly that we are taking everyone’s job, but it is usually people who think that and that say that, are the people who can get a job but do not want to or cannot get a job, so they just blame the Hispanics. We are the easy targeted race and stereotype about us, by only referring Hispanics as illegal immigrant which is not because there are other migrant who crossed the United States and are here illegally and Society does not refer them as illegal immigrants. Also it leads to being arrested unfairly for no reason, just because he or she was Hispanic. In Arizona which already have accepted racial profiling against Hispanics that has made the law passed which is called “SB1070”. Then there are people who racial
According to the author of this law, Mr. Russell Pearce, the state senator of Arizona’s 18th legislative district and the author of the new Arizona law SB 1070, argues that the United States Federal Government has not been doing their job correctly. The new law gives police officers the power to enforce immigration law. Pearce stated that police officers will not abuse of their powers given by the SB 1070 law because the SB 1070 clearly states the law provisions and how to enforce it. Therefore, he took the lead and implemented this law on his state to eliminate undocumented people at least in Arizona. Through this law police officers will have the power of prosecute anyone who is suspicious of being an illegal alien.
In New York City’s police department report in December 1999, the stop and frisk practices showed to be greatly based on race. In NYC, blacks make up 25.6% of the city’s population, Hispanics 23.7% and whites are 43.4% of NYC population. However, according to the report, 50.6% of all persons stopped were black, 33% were Hispanic, and only 12.9% were white. As you can see, more than half of the individuals who were stopped were black, 62.7% to be exact (ACLU, 2013). In Orange County, California Latinos, Asians and African Americans were more than 90% of the 20,221 men and women in the Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking System (ACLU, 2013). Clearly this database record shows racial profiling occurred when the total population in the database made up less than half of Orange County’s population. This is when the California Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the ACLU stepped in. One other instance of racial profiling I’d like to discuss occurred in Maricopa County, Arizona. A court ruled in May 2013 that “sheriff Joe Arpaio’s routine handling of people of Latino descent amounted to racial and ethnic profiling”; according to CNN, the sheriff’s office had a history of targeting vehicles with those having darker skin, examining them more strictly and taking them into custody more often than others (CNN, 2014). Judge Murray Snow ordered a monitor to oversee retraining in this
It is clear that illegal immigration has gotten out of control and constringent measures need to be taken to protect the United States borders. The local Government of Arizona recently decided to take control of the situation, by passing the “Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” {House Bill 2162}. This bill gives law enforcement officers and agencies the authority, to lawfully stop, detain and arrest anyone who appears to look like an illegal alien. The bill out-right condones racial profiling and it violates civil rights, as well!
To the supporters, racial profiling makes perfect sense and is a rational law enforcement strategy (Harris, 2003). Furthermore, supporters do not acknowledge the effects racial profiling has not only on people who belong to these groups, but on the relations between police and the communities they serve. Today policing strategies which center on community policing and racial profiling only alienates people from the police and causes deep seeded mistrust. Failure to acknowledge the racial context of the law and its enforcement will only increase the racial disparities that already exist in all aspects of criminal justice (Johnson, 2003).
The Arizona SB 1070 is a law that requires all aliens over the age of 14 who remain in the united states for longer than 30 days to register with the US government, and to have registration documents in their possession at all times. The Arizona law also made it illegal to be in the state of Arizona without the required documents. Some people don't agree with law they say that there is too many people that can't get the legal documents they need. Then there are some people that say the Arizona law is a good law to follow. Such as the law provides more security to the surrounding environment. In my opinion the Arizona state law is a good law to live and follow by for many different reasons.
Hispanic Americans suffered similar fate as African- Americans in racial profiling. The media portrayed them as part of gangs and selling drugs. This group is more likely to have a strong group identity and view the police officers as “gringos” or foreigners (Aguiree , 2004). They already look at the police officers with negativity due to increased activities of deporting illegal occupiers (Davis & Hendricks, 2007). The police officers may be influenced to believe that this group is at higher risk of breaking laws and do not understand Hispanic Americans’ culture.