Jose Guillen fears for Latino baseball players re: Show-me-your-papers Arizona

[Bluebear]

Take, for example, this scenario: An 18-year-old from Venezuela playing in the rookie league jumps in a friend’s car to head to the grocery store. The friend rolls through a stop sign. A police officer witnesses the infraction. The law, signed last week by Gov. Jan Brewer, requires that “where reasonable suspicion exists … a reasonable attempt shall be made … to determine the immigration status of the person.” The Venezuelan player, accordingly, is asked to furnish paperwork proving his legal residence, a new burden of proof under SB 1070. If he happens to have forgotten his passport and work visa at home, his friend would get a traffic ticket and the player would get significantly more.

“Under that scenario,” said Mike Philipsen, the communications advisor for the Arizona Senate Republicans, who drew up the bill, “he could be detained.”

In other words, hauled off to jail, even though he is in the United States legally.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in the United States, and Arizona is part of the United States,” Kansas City Royals designated hitter Jose Guillen(notes) said. “I hope police aren’t going to stop every dark-skinned person. It’s kind of like, wow, what’s going on.

“I was 17, 18. I’d forget things. Kids do.”

Guillen arrived in the United States at 17. The Pittsburgh Pirates signed him for $2,000 and sent him to their rookie-league affiliate in Florida. He grew up poor in the Dominican Republic. He didn’t know English. A law as murky as SB 1070 would’ve made no sense to him, and Guillen worries about this summer’s crop of rookie league players being targeted.

“There’s no distinguishing characteristic between an undocumented alien and someone who’s here legally,” said Glen Wasserstein, a partner with the Immigration Law Group in Washington. “How do you possibly have reasonable suspicion? Everybody of Hispanic orientation will be scrutinized.

“Why would you bring your passport and visa with you?”

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-arizonaimmigration042910