Why You Should be Terrified About Arizona’s Immigration Law Posted by Nathan S. on 05/14/10 | Filed under Features, Politics

What's that dead prez? It's bigger than hip-hop? I couldn't agree more. With one of the most terrifying laws of my lifetime having been recently passed in Arizona, and the internets infinitely more interested in Robert Pattinson's birthday (thanks Twitter), I felt like it was more than an appropriate time to expand the scope of our coverage. Make no mistake about it; Arizona's new immigration law is a dark day for America.

Arizona governor Jan Brewer recently signed a bill into law intended to identify and ultimately deport the state's large number of illegal immigrants. Regardless of your feelings surrounding the larger issue of illegal immigration, the means by which Arizona intends to carry out this law is idiotic and racist. In short, the law makes failing to carry proof of U.S. citizenship a crime, and allows police to stop anyone, anytime to check those documents. Of course, by "anyone" we all know they really mean "people who look like they could be Mexican."

On a purely logistical level this is of course a massively stupid law. Since officials have deemed driver's licenses too unreliable, the documents they'll except as proof of citizenship include birth certificates, passports and green cards. Now I don't know about you, but I don't know anyone who carries around their passport, let alone their birth certificate. So if we take the police at their word that they'll stop all people, regardless of race, the chances of citizens being routinely detained for hours if not days while police check their status is staggeringly high.

Of course, that "regardless of race" claim, and Gov. Brewer's promise that "racial profiling would not be tolerated", is ridiculous. Under what criteria will police be stopping people other than how "American" they look? And let's not kid ourselves; even with a black president in office, looking "American", at least in the context of this law, means being anything other than white. Not since Jim Crow have we seen racism legalized like this in the U.S.

Hypocritically, many of the law's biggest supporters are the same conservatives who screamed bloody murder about Obama's health care plan and want "the government out of their lives." It's hard for me to imagine a more invasive law than one that allows the police to stop you and demand documents at any time, for any reason they deem worthy. Explain to me how this isn't the beginning of the slippery slope into a police state?

So what can you do? You probably don't have the power to boycott all business with Arizona (as the city of Los Angeles has done), move to cancel the All-Star game (as many in MLB are demanding) or wear "Los Suns" jerseys as a show of support (as the Phoenix Suns have done). Instead, all you have to do is speak up. You have a voice. Use it.

(For more information I highly recommend checking out the New York Times' coverage of the issue.)