Legal Racism & Arizona

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer noted that her state's new and highly controversial immigration law would not hurt economic development in the state and that businesses have, in fact, desired such legislation, according to CNN.

As if that’s what everyone is angry about?

Come on, Jan. The commercial incentives that apply to legalized racism do not exactly fall under most people’s lists of genuine concerns. At least, not those of us who recognize what this new law really is: The USA Patriot Act, Part II.

For those of us who may have forgotten (and it must have been the majority of you, because I’m not sure why people don’t criticize it enough), The USA Patriot Act, passed in reaction to the 9/11 attacks, permits police officers and law enforcement to search and detain virtually any individual who is considered suspicious of terrorist activity, explicitly justifying racial profiling of Muslims or Arab-Americans. The brilliant piece of legislation also gives government agencies greater power in accessing the privacy of citizens’ lives, making it a bundle of joy overall.

Arizona’s new law – which will allow police to detain anyone suspicious of illegal alien status regardless of any previous criminal activity and requires all immigrants to carry supporting documents at all times – is an embarrassment to our country and blatant indicator of how little we have traveled along the road toward anti-racism. This law is basically an extension of the USA Patriot Act; however, this time it targets a different oppressed and misrepresented group of people. Mexican is the new Muslim.

Of course, I understand that many Americans will fail to question why so many immigrants flock to this nation every year in the first place (hint: it’s not because they love our "freedoms"), but regardless of your feelings and ideological attitudes regarding immigrants, immigration policy should still NEVER be this transparently racist, bigoted and outrageous.

What kind of country requires its citizens to defend themselves with piles of documents at all times? And what kind of training program could the state possibly implement that will curb any tendencies to racial profiling? The law itself is ideological foundation for such conduct. It's clear Arizona doesn't trust its immigrant population.

According to Gov. Brewer, "the bottom line is that when I go about meeting with businesses that come into Arizona ... they want to know that we have a safe and secure environment into which to move their businesses here..."

So immigrants automatically threaten the security of Arizona? Does Brewer, along with southwest business communities, actually render all immigrants dangerous due to their potential to have illegally entered the country?

Brewer can deny it all she wants, but this is nothing but racial profiling on a statewide level. To even voice concerns of economic development or future business is a fruitless endeavor and illustrative of an entirely different priority list - one that certainly favors profit to people.

Nobody should invest any real effort in such interests. Many companies will likely end up preferring the days before this law when they could manage more cheap labor without worrying about police detaining them, but the overall racist ideology driving Arizona politics today seems to supersede such possibilities.

In general, Arizona's new stance on immigration is unconstitutional, unwarranted and unworthy of U.S. legal protection. Please, write letters to your representatives to hold Arizona accountable for its actions. This is not the type of behavior we want to further support as disillusioned American citizens.