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Will Arizona's anti immigrant laws lead to ethnic profiling?

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Will Arizona's anti immigrant laws lead to ethnic profiling?

Alex Helling's picture
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The United States Supreme Court has upheld much of Arizona's law cracking down on illegal immigrants. The Court upheld a requirement that police officers check the immigration status of people they stop, even for minor offences. However critics are worried that the law will lead to ethnic profiling and Justice Anthony Kennedy writing the majority opinion acknowledged this by leaving open the possibility of challenges to the law once it takes effect. Because most illegal immigrants into Arizona are hispanic the worry is that hispanics will be targeted as the police try to enforce the immigration law. Officers are supposed to check immigration status when they have "reasonable suspicion" but what can create this suspicion if not ethnicity?

In his reaction to the ruling Obama said "No American should ever live under a cloud of suspicion just because of what they look like... Going forward, we must ensure that Arizona law enforcement officials do not enforce this law in a manner that undermines the civil rights of Americans, as the court's decision recognizes."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/uk-usa-immigration-court-idUKBRE85O1BO20120625

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/04/26/will-arizona-s-new-immi...

46 weeks 4 days ago
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