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Does the Immigrant Community have a "friend" in Arizona?

It has now been several weeks since the passage of Arizona’s patently anti-immigration law, SB1070, and the fallout has just begun. 

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It has now been several weeks since the passage of Arizona’s patently anti-immigration law, SB1070, and the fallout has just begun.

Copycat anti-immigrant legislative efforts, like those that followed several years ago after Mayor Barletta of Hazelton decided that he had the absolute right to usurp federal immigration laws, have already begun to sprout up, including laws rooted once again in the originally Quaker state of Pennsylvania, whose past slogan was “You have a friend in Pennsylvania”.

Suddenly, neither Pennsylvania nor Arizona is feeling like a very friendly state, especially if you have a “brown” face. In fact, as one supporter of the Arizona legislation angrily proclaimed on national television when asked why she supported a law that was based on racial profiling, “You don’t see any white or black faces here anymore, just brown faces”.

Clearly, the seeds of anger and hatred that Barletta and his cronies planted in Hazelton have spread, along with hate crimes against Latinos.

As those of us in the immigration community dissect and digest the meaning of this new law, we are trying to find a good way to spin it, if there is any good spin at all for a law that is ugly and unconstitutional. The good spin? Jan Brewer, the Republican Governor of Arizona, may very well turn out to be a “friend” of the immigrant community, a friend in the Republican camp.

How so? How can we possibly call a publicly elected official who advocated for and signed a discriminatory, dangerous law that destroys basic tenets of civil liberty, due process, justice and security in the U.S. by giving the state of Arizona the right to arbitrarily stop people on the streets, demand proof of their immigration status, and throw them in jail if they can’t show that they have the right to legally be in this country a “friend”?

How can we call this Governor a friend, knowing that the passage of this legislation in Arizona is just the first step—an appetitive teaser—for more states, municipalities and local governmental entities who are salivating at the thought of taking the matter of immigration into their own hands and legislating (albeit through the back door because they are preempted from do so doing since the right to legislate immigration matters belongs to the federal government, not to the states)?

We can call Governor Brewer our “new friend” (although she probably won’t be pleased to be so labeled) because, as a result of the law that she has now signed, no longer can the divisive and politically charged issue of immigration reform be “backburnered” by Congress.

If the American Revolution was the shot that was heard around the world, the passage of SB1070 in Arizona is the shot that was heard all throughout the United States. With this shot no longer can either party, Republican or Democratic, ignore what those of us in the immigrant community have know and preached for so long: the time for comprehensive federal immigration reform is now.

If the members of Congress, Senators and Congressmen/women alike continue to refuse to act due to fear of losing their jobs, Arizona will merely be the first step in a very bloody battle that will make the U.S, appear even uglier in the eyes of the world than anything the Bush administration did in eight years (and that’s a hard act to follow).

If the current administration and Congress fail to act now, each and every American should shiver at the ramifications, for none of us are truly safe. Ask yourself: do you carry proof of your legal immigration status with you at all times, keeping in mind that possession of a driver’s license is not proof of legal immigration status in the U.S.? Do you carry your birth certificate, naturalization certificate or passport with you? Few, if any of us do, for fear of losing these most important documents.

Governor Brewer, a staunch Republican, has stated that she signed SB1070 into law because the federal government has ignored the growing illegal immigration problem in the U.S. By signing this law, she has unwittingly thrown the ball into the Republican court, creating an opportunity for the wounded and limping Republican Party to show us that they can do more than just throw teacup parties or showcase the very photogenic Sarah Palin.

Governor Brewer, most probably without fully understanding it, has now challenged her party to come up with a solution to our ongoing immigration debate. It is now up to us to contact our local members of Congress and tell them exactly what we want and expect in an immigration bill.

It’s time for us to tell them that we can’t and won’t wait until the next governor chooses to act and further take away our sense of freedom and security when the responsibility and duty to quickly and humanely act lies in their hands of our elected officials in Congress.

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