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Asian American Groups Join Lawsuit Against SB 1070
New America Media, Op-ed, Julie Su and Connie Choi
May 19, 2010
http://newamericamedia.org/2010/05/asian-american-groups-join-lawsuit-against-sb-1070.php
"This week, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Asian American Justice Center, members of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, filed a lawsuit with other national civil rights organizations to challenge SB 1070, a sweeping anti-immigrant bill recently signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.
This unconstitutional and patently un-American law requires police officers to question anyone stopped by the police who they “reasonably suspect” is undocumented, and ask for their papers. It expands the authority of law enforcement to make warrantless arrests and gives officers carte blanche to engage in racial profiling, where characteristics like language fluency, accent, style of dress, and the company that someone keeps are major factors in how the police decide if a person is suspected of being undocumented. Arizona’s SB 1070 targets Latinos in particular for “attrition through enforcement” by establishing a comprehensive state immigration scheme that is unconstitutional and divisive.
The coalition filing the lawsuit also includes the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), ACLU of Arizona, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON).
The civil rights organizations are representing nearly two dozen named plaintiffs, including the Japanese American Citizens League, whose Arizona chapter has 300 members; Arizona South Asians for Safe Families; Asian Chamber of Commerce; and Muslim American Society.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are no strangers to xenophobia and racism. To this day, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 remains the only legislation in U.S. history that adopted an explicitly race-based prohibition on entry into the United States. The Geary Act of 1892, which reauthorized the Chinese Exclusion Act, required Chinese immigrants to carry a residence certificate on them at all times upon penalty of deportation. Immigration officials and police officers conducted spot checks in canneries, mines, and lodging houses demanding that every Chinese person show these residence certificates. Similarly, Arizona’s SB 1070 will make all who appear to be foreign subject to this “show- me-your-papers” method of law enforcement." * To read more click on the link above. *
Thursday, May 20, 2010
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In essence, a potential, if not inevitable provision for racial profiling, the SB1070 has been defended by its perceived resourcefulness to filter the concerning amount of undocumented immigrants in the state of Arizona. Pennsylvania has also recently adapted a version of this bill.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the bill implicitly targets the Hispanic population, the passing of this law carries important implications for all racial minority groups in America. This bill puts all individuals of color in the spotlight, alien or not, and reinforces- in legislation- a superior-inferior racial dynamic that most minority groups have worked hard to steer away from. Born an American citizen to immigrant parents, I have always believed it to be inherently wrong for someone to question my legitimacy based on my physical appearance. I, like any individual, wear no marker and no stamp that reads “American” or “Immigrant.” The SB1070, however, creates a basis for ‘reasonable suspicion’ to allow the “people in Arizona who assume they know what an illegal immigrant’ looks like,” to question individuals based on that stamp of suspicious status.
Many communities of color in America have faced years of racism, riots, and obviously, deaths, to get to the America we have today- a place where a majority of the country hand-selected a president who embraces his minority status as he holds his leadership role. Although many people are still marginalized in various professional and academic spaces, I think this country continues to celebrate its diversity and makes an effort to be inclusive of all individuals. The SB1070 bill lacks innovative and effective strategizing towards solving an issue, and does not seem to take into account progressive ideology. These are only a few points to what is wrong with the Arizona legislation. Although I admit I have no distinct suggestions as to better ways of countering the growing numbers of undocumented immigrants, I think the conversation of how easy it is for local governments to “other” a certain minority group and put all individuals at defense should raise an eyebrow for all communities of color.