LINK - Arizona S.B. 1070, engrossed as House Bill 2162, which criminalizes work and employment - LINK
Above is the link directly to Arizona statute on immigration. In my opinion, the media has not been accurately reporting this bill, and this accounts for the broad support for the action. People are told Arizona is just running checks on people who run stop lights. That is an outright lie, and it is unbelievable that those who call themselves journalists or political leaders maintain such a line of deception.
On July 7, the Wall Street Journal reported that S.B. 1070 "makes illegal immigration a state crime." But the media still falsely reports that the Arizona police will not be able to demand documents to establish citizenship unless they stop them "for other alleged crimes." But that deliberately hides what these other "alleged crimes" are. They are not limited to running stop lights and the like. Remember, these are laws that will be passed in each state, so read the bill carefully. When you read the bill, you will see what S.B. 1070 criminalizes is simply working (without proper identification establishing citizenship); trying to hire someone without such identification to work for you; or transporting someone for any purpose (but especially for work) who lacks such identification. These are all state crimes under the act, and is a police officer assigned to enforce this law is looking for people who might be committing one of these crimes, what is he (or she) going to be looking for? And that is where the racial and ethnic profiling does indeed come in.
What the federal legislation I think Congress must pass, pre-empting the field so the states can't criminalize these activities, would preserve the qualifications of citizenship for each and every job, which is imposed by federal law. But they would no longer be a state crime (these state statutes would be pre-empted by an act of Congress) and police would not be looking for people who might be Mexican citizens without proper papers. Employers would still be required to meet immigration requirements.
My legislation would also change the economic incentives in positive ways by building productive businesses in an international border zone a state could establish, which would qualify for economic benefits designed to boost private investment for U.S. jobs. Instead of using deterrence against individuals based on their appearance as citizens of Mexico, we would encourage people to come to the border to live and work. This would include Mexican citizens who could obtain employment north of the border, but only on a legal basis. Instead of building fences, America would build factories and businesses. But to turn to the bill, I want to directly analyze its purpose and effect.
Arizona declares openly that its intent is deter--to punish--those who look or sound like Mexican citizens to discourage immigration for work, and to discourage employers and transporters from hiring or transporting them. This is done to stop a general situation, disregarding the rule of law and disregarding the individual rights of all those under the jurisdiction of the United States of America in Arizona. Because of this, the U.S. has correctly alleged in its Complaint in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court-AZ, that "S.B. 1070 is preempted by federal law and therefore violates the
Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.
"5 ...The legislature declares that the intent of this act is to make
6 attrition through enforcement the public policy of all state and local
7 government agencies in Arizona. The provisions of this act are intended
8 to work together to discourage and deter the unlawful entry and presence
9 of aliens and economic activity by persons unlawfully present in the
10 United States."
The details of the racial profiling and the punishment are set out below:
