Arizona Immigration Law Stirs Up Controversy Throughout US
Written on August 20, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: Labor Law
Heated debates over the bold decision of Jan Brewer to implement Arizona Immigration Bill meant to ease the capture of illegal immigrants by allowing Law Enforcement Officials to verify the legal status of any citizen according to “reasonable suspicion”, are not even close to chilling out. American citizens speak out their opinions at immigration.civiltallks.com, where the dispute has already reached its climax!
The point is that being the strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in the United States in decades, the bill received national attention and spurred controversy among the society. The move unleashed immediate protests and the divisive battle over immigration reform nationally. The law opponents consider it to be a recipe for racial and ethnic profiling.
A referendum launched on April 28 could put Arizona’s tough new law on hold until 2012 if organizers can gather more than 76,000 signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot.
Most Latinos condemn SB 1070, while only 20% of non-Latinos oppose it according to an Associated Press-Univision Poll. A resounding majority of Latinos say that illegal immigrants are a boon, not a burden to the country. However the most non-Latinos consider illegal immigrants to be a drain on society.
Here are the hot facts to determine whether SB 1070 is a mere act of human rights violation or just a essential measure for detecting illegals.
Approximately 17 percent of those arrested by the Border Patrol in its Tucson Sector have criminal records in the United States. 80% of cocaine and 50% of heroin in the U.S. is smuggled across the border by Mexican nationals.
An average of 10,000 illegal aliens cross the border every day – over 3 million per year.
The costs to arrest, detain, process, and transport undocumented immigrants out of Arizona will drain local government treasuries. If the federal government were to handle the entire undocumented population, the cost would be approximately $23,148 per person, based on a recent study by the Center for American Progress.
The Texas-based Perryman Group calculated that if all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Arizona, the state would lose $26.4 billion in economic activity, $11.7 billion in gross state product, and approximately 140,324 jobs.
The toughest sheriff of USA, Joe Arpaio and his aggressive tactics against illegal immigrants have also been frequently in the news lately. 93 people were detained in the latest sweep, and officers suspected about 63 of them are illegal immigrants. This brings up the question â on what ground were the other 30 detained and if they are legals, isn’t it an argument that “reasonable suspicion” doesn’t work in certain cases? President Obama said that the law “threatened to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”
The law sprung some boycotts around the United States, the greatest being that of Los Angeles. Losses that Arizona may support as a result of the boycotts are tremendous. Phoenix is already estimating a boycott could cost $90 million and that’s just one city in the state. However, if Arizona decides to boycott California back by cutting the power supply as some news sources state at the date being, there is no telling how much damage that would imply.
And the last hot topic discussed on all news portals these days is the Calderon’s visit to the White House. The Mexican President took the unusual step Wednesday morning of criticizing an American law while visiting the White House, saying cooperation is needed to fix the US-Mexican immigration issue but “such laws as the Arizona law that is forcing our people to face discrimination. If we are divided, we cannot overcome these problems.”
One question remains rhetorical, at least to a person who judges beyond borders and immigration: Aren’t Americans the ones who provide jobs to illegal immigrants choosing cheap labor and neglecting the legal status of the employee?
You can jump on a bandwagon, casting your vote and sharing your opinion at immigration.civiltalks.com. Your comments count!
Gerry McKortney
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Tags: Arizona ,Controversy ,Immigration ,Stirs ,Throughout
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