Comment & Debate
Mike Rosen. “Arizona is just taking a stand.” Denver Post. May 6th, 2010: “Liberal politicians and their soulmates in the media have reached new heights of irrationality and hysteria in their overreaction to Arizona’s new law dealing with illegal immigrants. A New York Times editorial falsely claimed that, ‘The statute requires police officers to stop and question anyone who looks like an illegal immigrant.’ It does no such thing. There must first be behavior and a legitimate law-enforcement incident justifying a stop, detention or arrest, and then a reasonable suspicion that a person is unlawfully in the United States. The initial statute specifically mandated that police should not rely ‘solely’ on physical appearance, race, color or national origin, while an amended version barred that type of profiling altogether.”
“Arizona immigration law is sound, needed.” Watertown Daily Times. May 6, 2010: “Charges of racism are baseless as the law specifically addresses the issue in stating that agencies may not solely consider race, color or national origin during enforcement.”
Kris Kobach. “Why Arizona Drew a Line.” New York Times. April 28th, 2010: “The law will allow police to engage in racial profiling. Actually, Section 2 provides that a law enforcement official “may not solely consider race, color or national origin” in making any stops or determining immigration status. In addition, all normal Fourth Amendment protections against profiling will continue to apply. In fact, the Arizona law actually reduces the likelihood of race-based harassment by compelling police officers to contact the federal government as soon as is practicable when they suspect a person is an illegal alien, as opposed to letting them make arrests on their own assessment.”
James Edwards. “Arizona Gets it Right on Illegal Immigration.” Human Events. April 27th, 2010: “The opponents early and often have charged that rampant racial profiling will follow. But this law prohibits officers from using “race, color or national origin” as the sole basis of their reasonable suspicion of illegal immigrant status. Further, officers may question suspected illegal aliens only in the context of their involvement in another law violation, such as breaking traffic laws. And the officers will get special training.”