The court sustained the “show me your papers”
provision of the law that requires state law enforcement officers to determine
the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest.
The most conservative members of the court voted
to sustain the entire law. Imagine
this. Judges who consider
themselves conservative support a law that requires all persons to carry papers
to show their immigration/citizenship status. This is a practice most often found in repressive
regimes such as that of Syria or Nazi Germany.
The decision was a partial victory for the Obama
administration, which had sued to block several parts of the law.
In a statement President Obama said that he was
"pleased" with the Court's decision to strike down some aspects of
the law, but he voiced his concern about the remaining provision.
"I agree with the Court that individuals
cannot be detained solely to verify their immigration status. No American
should ever live under a cloud of suspicion just because of what they look
like," Mr. Obama said. "Going forward, we must ensure that Arizona
law enforcement officials do not enforce this law in a manner that undermines
the civil rights of Americans."
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer declared that the decision was a victory for Arizona. This is simply Tea Party spin. The Tea Party currently dominates most of Arizona Republican politics.
This decision does not mean that the harsh anti
immigration efforts of Arizona, Alabama and others states has been completely
stopped. When California passed
its infamous Prop.187 in 1994, major provisions of it too were blocked by
courts from implementation including specifically the provision to bar
undocumented children from public schools. However, most of California Prop. 187 law became federal law in the national Immigration Enforcement
Improvement Act of 1995 and the Welfare “Reform” act of 1996 entitled,
“Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996”.
No comments:
Post a Comment