THE STATE OF ARIZONA HAS LOST ITS COOL.

As of this morning, there is a piece of legislature sitting on Governor Jan Brewer’s desk waiting her signature that has the ability to set immigration reform back decades. If she signs this bill into law, she will be responsible for alienating every immigrant, legal or otherwise, residing in this country. One provision of this new law makes the failure to carry your immigration paperwork a state crime. Another gives local law enforcement the power to stop any individual solely for the purpose of verifying their immigration status. Traditionally, the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws has always been under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government. This over reaction to the problem of illegal immigration in the State of Arizona will create more problems than it attempts to solve. The law will expand the gap between law enforcement and immigrant communities and create a hostile environment for everyone involved. Leaving local governments to deal with issues created by the federal government is fundamentally unfair. Although, it’s not fair to lay all blame with the government of State of Arizona, the federal government's failure to address this volatile issue has helped create this mess. Local and State governments, especially the ones along the U.S/Mexico border are over burdened with the increasing drug related violence in their jurisdictions. They don’t have the legislative power and/or resources to deal with problems effectively. If corrective measures are taken by the Obama administration soon, it is very likely that similar legislation will spring up in other states as well. Here is hoping that cooler heads will prevail and this bill will suffer a premature death.

To read more see The New York Times

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