New Immigration Law Won't Survive Legal Challenge

[babylonsister]

Arizona's new immigration law is unconstitutional
Not all of it will be thrown out by the courts -- but the most controversial provision has to be. Here's why

By James Doty

snip//

The "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" (known mainly as SB 1070) requires that police officers determine the immigration status of a person "where reasonable suspicion exists" that the person is in the country illegally. The officer must then verify the suspect's immigration status with the federal government.

As many have noted, the most obvious (and provocative) question raised by this provision is, "What do illegal immigrants look like?" They're probably Hispanic, but so are 30 percent of Arizona's residents. So unless the law authorizes the stopping and questioning of any person who looks darker than the average Caucasian, there needs to be some other criteria that set apart illegal aliens from lawful residents.

But so far, no one has come up with any. When asked what other factors an officer might use to single out an unlawful resident, Brewer replied, "We have to trust our law enforcement."

That's not a constitutionally acceptable answer. For one thing, the Constitution's equal protection clause forbids the government from differentiating between anyone in the United States -- including illegal aliens -- on the basis of race. The new law, on its face, doesn't make racial distinctions, but its supporters haven't articulated any other grounds for suspecting that someone is an unlawful resident. It is, therefore, vulnerable to the argument that it essentially criminalizes walking while Hispanic.

more...

http://www.salon.com/news/immigration/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/04/26/is_arizona_immigration_law_constitutional

[Bitwit1234]

1. It is discrimination. And it won't. The Arizona legislature knew that

but they wanted to start a conflict so they did it anyway. But it backfired. Latinos are registering to vote over whelming and most of those people are going to be voted out of office.