In recent news, Arizona was able to garner national attention about the illegal immigration issue by enacting a law that proved as controversial as the issue itself. Many states have already asked to have similar laws drawn up and this move by Arizona has had a significant amount of support.

However, the Arizona Immigration law has also had prominent Mexican-Americans speak out over it.

The key points of law that have acquired a considerable amount of debate are as follows: the legislation criminalizes staying within the United States illegally, allows law enforcement to question individuals on their legal status based off of “reasonable suspicion” and requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents everywhere. It also makes it a crime to prevent the full use of law enforcement to execute the law.

Thus, it leaves the law open to interpretation, allowing for a lot of controversy.

The real issue lies within the nature of the law, which gives immense power to law enforcement. This allows for the possibility of abuse when implementing the law.

This controversial law has created tumult among Mexican-Americans throughout the United States, resulting in a string of protests advocating overturning this law for what some see, including myself  as a violation of civil liberties.

In my opinion, this law is unconstitutional because of the state’s attempt to regulate immigration, a power that lies with the federal government. It is true that the federal government should have been acting on the immigration issue in our country, however due to the Health Care reform law and the recent economic law, this issue has been put on the back burner.

Democrats in the Senate have also drawn up an outline for an Immigration Bill that focuses on strengthening surveillance along the Mexican border; nonetheless it seems unlikely that it will be passed this year.

While attending a naturalization ceremony in Washington D.C., President Obama deemed the law “misguided” and asked that it be reviewed and voiced concern saying, “Our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others.

That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans…”
Regardless of the assurances made by Governor Jan Brewer, who was inept when it came to articulating exactly what an illegal immigrant looks like, and with the amendment made to the law to prohibit the use of racial profiling, the amendment would still be ineffective.

Law enforcement is forced to act on their split second decisions; it seems impossible to identify an illegal immigrant without the use of racial profiling or stereotypes.

Mind you, there are thousands of people that go back and forth across the border everyday, which makes it difficult to decipher the difference between illegal and legal aliens.

The question is, how will they be able to execute the law when it comes into effect this July? Judging based on color or race is a sensitive issue, but it is the only way the police will be able to weed out illegal immigrants under this law.

There is no firm way to classify an illegal immigrant, unless they go by the language spoken or clothing worn, which are often misleading, as well as forms of profiling.

In a country which has dealt with racial issues throughout its history, one would assume that the lesson should have been learned.

There always is a political intent behind any major issue; Arizona is trying to appeal to the prejudices of the people just to get a guaranteed vote and their malicious intent is the only reason why they would compose such a law.

It has been 14 years since we have had a working immigration policy. However, the Bush administration had a decent idea for an effective immigration policy, and Obama had a similar plan but it is unlikely that by the time of the elections a new immigration policy will be passed. With such a complex issue, there is not a feasible way to come up with a solution.

We need to expel the American mindset of, “we were here first”, as it is repetitive and only adds to the problem. Because of Arizona’s pure malicious political agenda, this is only a step backwards and Arizona will suffer the consequences in due time.