Reasons Why SB 1070 Should Be Opposed - Essay Example

?Reasons Why SB 1070 Should be Opposed SB 1070 is the Arizona anti-immigration bill that was passed by the congress based upon the recommendation of Republican State Senator Russel Pearce who created the highly controversial law. The reason that the law is controversial is because of the sweeping anti-immigration sentiment that it contains and the methods by which it is expected to be implemented. (Kain, Erick “Why Arizona's Controversial Immigration Law is Bad for Business”) This paper shall take a closer look at the controversial sections of the state law and discuss the reasons as to why those sections prove to be a very bad idea both for the law and the state of Arizona. I shall use general information about the law and its open discussions as culled from various magazines, newspapers, and journals online in order to help persuade the reader to rethink their position should they be in full support of the law. After all, every law is subject to political discussion. Those who support the controversial law do so on the basis that the senators and other politicians in Washington are incapable of passing effective anti-immigration laws. That is why the state of Arizona has chosen to enforce its own version of an anti-immigration law. After all, who better to know the effects of illegal immigration into their state than the state politicians? They are familiar with the immigration problem of their state and therefore, should be the most authoritative when it comes to finding methods of keeping these illegal immigrants out of the country. Let us not forget the most important aspect of anti-immigration law enforcement, it must be based upon a law that was passed by consensus on a national level over at the Capitol. The enforcement of the nitty gritty points of the law is the responsibility of those deputized by the national senate. The budget for anti-immigration law enforcement is also worked into the country's budget every year. But under the Arizona anti-immigration law, the budget for enforcing the law as stated in SB 1070 should come from the federal government. Under no circumstances should the enactment of such laws be done under the supervision and authority of the state under a localized anti-immigration law. (Navarette Jr., Ruben “The Truth About Arizona's Anti-immigration Law”) If Arizona is allowed to breakaway from the law as defined by Washington, then all the other states must be given the same freedom to enforce their anti-immigration laws. There is also the local and national economic and agricultural aspect to consider at the moment while the law is in effect. Although it is true that Washington has a hard time coming up with a cohesive anti-immigration plan that both sides of the political spectrum can get aboard on, they have to first consider the local economy and workforce of the state before passing such laws. These state legislators seem to have forgotten that the reason that illegal immigrants proliferate in the state is because there are jobs to be had. Jobs that our fellow Americans frown upon or refuse to do under the scorching heat of the sun. (Kain, Erick “Why Arizona's Controversial Immigration Law is Bad for Business”) Without these illegal immigrants to do the job without complain, is there anyone else who would willingly come forward to do those menial jobs? Let's face it, only the migrant workers who work illegally in the country would be willing to do those jobs in exchange for far less than they should actually be paid One of the key points that is being addressed as an explosive issue when it comes to the enforcement of this bill is that certain sectors of society believe that the law will encourage racial profiling. The belief stems from the fact that the law is far too broad and open to interpretation that those enforcing it will not have any qualms about asking for citizenship identification papers because he is exposed to various races every “single day of his working life. It is believed that SB 1070, in its original content may : ...unlawfully is to start with anybody who looks Mexican, police will more often than not use ethnic identifiers as the basis of any profile. “ (Kelley, Raina “The Trouble With Racial Profiling”) Indeed, the law allows the local law enforcement officials of Arizona too much freedom with which to carry out their investigation of suspected illegal aliens at certain check stops. This makes the law clearly enforce racial profiling. An activity that the United States has worked very hard to avoid doing ever since the events of 9/11 for fear that it could alienate a whole sector of American society in the process. Arizona does not seem to have that problem though. Otherwise they would not have clearly spelled out the reasons as to when and why a person may be pulled over by the police and asked to show proof of citizenship. Such a move has never been proven to be an actual crime deterrent and would instead, just create a great divide between law enforcement and the heavily Latino and Hispanic sector of society. There is simply no justification for asking a person to prove he has the right to stay in the United States solely based upon the documentation that he presents. It is an insulting act that demeans the status of a person not only in the eyes of the public witnessing the event and therefore should never be encouraged. After all, most of the people in Arizona come from Hispanic heritage and profiling them would simply translate into disrespecting their immigrant roots. Then of course, there are the concerns of the business sector pertaining to the safety and welfare of their employees. After all, in a state where Hispanics number almost the same as the Whites, it is extremely difficult to ensure that the anti-immigration law that they passed would not adversely affect the local economy and the income of the business men and their patrons. Those who oppose the law say that the economy of Arizona can be negatively affected because the stringent measures within the law would prevent the local migrant or immigrant workers from becoming a productive member of the union. That is because, illegal immigrants are the only people who would be willing to do the menial tasks that the highly trained American refuses to do. The American Farm Bureau Federation reports that under the implementing guidelines of this law it will be difficult to hire short term laborers, willing to toil under the hot summer weather: ... if agriculture’s access to migrant labor were cut off, as much as $5-9 billion in annual production of primarily import-sensitive commodities most dependent on migrant labor would be lost in the short term. Over the longer term, this annual loss would increase to $6.5-12 billion as the shock worked its way through the sector. This compares to an annual production average for the entire agricultural sector of $208 billion over the last decade. (Kain, Erick “Why Arizona's Controversial Immigration Law is Bad for Business”) We all understand that illegal immigration and undocumented workers are a huge problem for the state of Arizona. Specially since most of the people who already live there are of Hispanic rather than American heritage. But the existence of SB 1070 does not solve the problem of illegal immigration within their ranks. Instead, it causes an even bigger problem among those who find themselves enacting the law and those who seem to be taking a different direction in life than that which was originally intended. The problem of illegal immigration is not the problem of one state alone. Therefore, it is not right that all of the states come to the table with other recommendations knowing full well that the state laws they encourage can easily be overturned by the courts. Rather, the state should work more on speeding up the immigration process and implementing it only with the approval of the federal government. Illegal immigration is not a problem that can be resolved overnight, nor is it a problem meant to be solved by only one country without the advantage of sharing information with each other. The anti-immigration bill may be in existence today but it does so with the controversial topics I discussed above either taken out or watered down. In fact, there are those hard core anti-immigrant politicians who even believe that the Arizona law should be the template for the federal anti-immigration laws both now and in the future. Works Cited Kain, Eric. “Why Arizona's Controversial Immigration Law is Bad for Business”. Tech. forbes.com. 24 Apr. 2013 Web. 27 May 2012. Kelley, Raina. “The Trouble with Racial Profiling”. U.S. News. Newsweek. 9 May 2010. Web. 8 May 2013. Moffet, Dan. “Arguments Against Arizona Law”. Immigration Issues. about.com. n.d. Web. Navarette, Ruben Jr. “The Truth About Arizona's Immigration Law”. Home. cnn.com. 23 Apr. 2012. Web. 7 May 2013. Rau, Alia Beard. “Immigration Reform Bill May Shift Arizona's Role”. The Republic. azcentral.com. 20 Apr. 2013. Web. 9 May 2013. Santos, Fernanda. “Arizona Immigration Law Survives Ruling”. U.S. The New York Times. 6 Sept. 2012. Web. 8 May 2013. Schoetz, David. “Arizona Immigration Law: right or wrong?”.Headlines. abcnews.com. 30 Apr. 2010 Web. 9 May 2013. Read More