Arizona Immigration Law SB1070 was signed by Arizona Governor Gov. Jan Brewer, April 23, creating what many consider the harshest anti-immigration policy in decades.
While the new state misdemeanor crime merely backs up a federal law requiring aliens to carry registration documents, much is being made of another provision obligating police to arrest a person if there is probable cause the person is an illegal alien. Just what constitutes “probable cause” has been the subject of much debate.
“What I think is a mistake is when we start having local law enforcement officials empowered to stop people on the suspicion that they may be undocumented workers,” said President Obama of the new law. “That carries a great amount of risk that core values that we all care about are breached.”
The biggest concern, according to many protesters, is that the new provision encourages and in fact requires racial profiling. Even though the law specifically states that police can only investigate immigration status in conjunction with a lawful stop or arrest, it also allows private citizens to sue the police for not enforcing the law aggressively enough, and one wonders just how police are expected to determine “probable cause” without referring to race and ethnic background.
Even the Mexican Senate urged Gov. Brewer to veto the measure, prior to it’s signing, and the Mexican Embassy raised concerns about racial profiling. Even supporters of stricter immigration laws have expressed concern over what this is doing to our country and how it might be viewed from an international standpoint.
"There has been a very unfortunate racist tone that has emerged in a lot of the discussion about immigration and that's inexcusable,” said California Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina. “We must be a country that welcomes legal immigrants to this country. We must be a country that recognizes that we have industries like agriculture that have depended on temporary migrant labor for generations.”
Even though the bill is not scheduled to go into effect until July 28, it has already sparked concerns that other states, including Utah, Oklahoma and much of the south, may use this as a template for crafting their own laws. Federal lawmakers have begun chattering about immigration reform, but any true change is still a long way off.
In the meantime, the controversial provision has already led to the protest of approximately 60,000 immigrants in the nation’s largest May Day rally in Los Angeles. Other protests on

May 1st in cities throughout the United States included varying degrees of violence, particularly where immigrant groups clashed with TEA party activists supportive of harsher laws. Other groups, including Major League Baseball and local political groups throughout the northwest, have actually considered boycotting Arizona.
"It would be immoral to not stand up in the face of a piece of legislation that is rooted in hate and fear," said St. Paul, Minn Mayor Chris Coleman."We are a country of immigrants and SB 1070 is an affront to our Constitution and the values we hold dear as Americans. It's not worthy of who we are as a people - and it's certainly not worthy of the investment of any city dollars being spent in Arizona."