Monday,
June 7, 2010
A Balanced View of Arizona Law from a Central American
By Guillermo Areas Cabrera
The
law known as Arizona SB1070 is a state law enacted by the Senate of the State of Arizona (USA) and is considered as the widest
ranging and strict control measure against illegal immigration during the last decades in the United States. It is titled
“Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act.”
Under
this law, it is a misdemeanor for an alien to be in Arizona without having the identification documents required by federal
law. The law also adds local and state application to the federal immigration laws and applies severe measures against those
who house, hire, and transport illegal aliens. According to the legal reasoning, the motive or intention of this law
is attrition through enforcement. In the case of illegal immigrants, this pressure and legal harassment is to obligate
those who wish to immigrate to the United States to do so according to the laws enacted for that purpose, and for those who
are already there illegally, to have them consider that the pressure and the harassment are such that it’s better to
return to their country of origin.
After
the protests, especially in the state of Arizona where 28 percent of the population is considered Hispanic, the majority of
them Mexican, the Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, signed amendments to law SB1070 on April 30 by means of amendment HB 2161.
The changes eliminate the possibility that state and local law enforcement may use racial profiling as a motive to detain
an individual, and holds that persons can identify themselves to police with a valid driver’s license of the State of
Arizona or from any other state, with an identification as a member of a tribe recognized by the State, or any other valid
identification document.
The
amendment provides that officials may question or require [documentation] from a person about their immigration status only
when there is “legal contact,” that is, when a “legal stop, detention or arrest” takes place due to
the application of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town of the State of Arizona. Before this amendment, the law originally provided that if the police suspected any person walking the
streets, in Phoenix for example, to be undocumented, then he could be detained and questioned until he could prove his legal
residence in the country. Now they will no longer be able to do so. The amendment also precludes the search of a residence,
without a court order, when it is suspected that there are illegal aliens inside.
When
opinion polls were conducted about the approval of Arizona law SB1070, the results were what no one expected. The great
majority of Americans know the law and there’s a larger percentage in favor of the law than against it. Almost
60% of the population is in favor of the law in question.
This
law was approved by the Senate of Arizona in response to the lack of action by the federal government about the immigration
problems experienced by all states bordering on Mexico. The Democrats have considered working on the issue, but given
the status of public opinion in the USA, it’s not felt that there may exist a popular backing to abolish or soften Arizona’s
Law SB1070, and, rather, it’s believed that other border states of the southwest of the USA could enact similar laws.
The
feeling of the American people has been synthesized by a housewife who, when asked her opinion of the law, answered: “Let
millions of them come, but let them come according to law. Why do they have to come in violation of our immigration
laws? What would other countries think if 'the gringos' would invade them as wetbacks in violation of their immigration
laws?”
Personally,
what attracts my attention are the declarations from other governments who state that they are against the measures provided
by the Arizona Law, because they violate the human rights of the illegal immigrants who arrive in that country (the USA),
when the reality is that these illegals seek the “American dream” because their native countries have denied them
their most basic human rights such as the right to have employment and the right to have three square meals every day. It’s
as if I criticized a neighbor who refuses to give my children something to eat when they ask for food because I, being incompetent
or lazy, do not satisfy their needs.
What
can our tico [regional nickname for Costa Ricans] neighbors say about the human
rights of our illegals who arrive in that country looking for the “Tico dream,” because in the land of Dario [referring
to Nicaragua; Ruben Dario was a noted Nicaraguan poet of the 19th Century] they don’t have the right to work and
to have three warm meals a day. What can the Spaniards say about the human rights of the immigrants who arrive in their
country, or the Italians, and least of all the Mexicans, with their migratory coyotes who, in partnership with officials,
rape, steal, swindle or kill whoever dares to go across their country in search of the Rio Grande border.
Gentlemen,
let us be more honest with ourselves. Let us concern ourselves so that our people do not abandon the country because of hunger
and lack of work, or so that there may not be children out in the street, begging, nor mothers with children on their laps,
under the inclement sun, begging at the traffic lights, nor old people searching for a daily meal in the garbage dumps. Let
us think more about how to save Nicaragua, which is dying in front of us.
Let
us not see garbage in someone else’s eye when we have not been able to clean our own.
——————————
Op-ed commentary:
"Ley 1070. Ley contra la inmigración ilegal," El Nuevo Diario, Managua, Nicaragua, June 2, 2010; "Foreign
News Report," provided and translated by the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO).
