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Statement of ABA President Carolyn Lamm on Arizona's New Immigration Law

By LRC Bloggers

From ABA Now:

The recently signed immigration law in  Arizona runs contrary to the fundamental tenets of our Constitution relative to  equal protection and due process.  This draconian, and likely  unconstitutional, law threatens to reverse nearly 50 years of civil rights advancements in  our nation.  It is, quite simply put, a law based on prejudice and fear, one whose purpose is to be divisive.

This law encourages second-class treatment  of individuals based on the color of their skin, and that is unacceptable.  The  American Bar Association has long opposed these kinds of initiatives because they intrude on personal civil rights and  because they belie our nation?s principle of justice for all.  When justice for anyone in America is threatened, it diminishes us all as a free people.

As the ABA?s landmark study in our March 2010 report on the immigration adjudication  system demonstrates, the U.S. immigration system is fundamentally broken.  Indeed, the ABA is aggressively urging Congress to enact immigration reform as a top  priority.  The Arizona law gives the authority of state and local police to engage in a broad  range of immigration enforcement activities, enforcement that is ? and should  remain ? a federal responsibility.

Only with a comprehensive national approach  can we enhance our border and national security ? which will benefit Arizona and all  states ? while humanely and realistically addressing the undocumented population  and our overburdened immigration court system, and preserving our American  traditions of fairness and due process under the law.

As we become more globally interdependent,  more sensitivity between peoples and nations is called for, not less.  We as Americans must hearken back to the principles on which our nation was formed and  which have led to our providing a beacon of liberty for the rest of the  world.  This law throws a cloak over that light.

With nearly 400,000  members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national  voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that  assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides  continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the  world of the importance of the rule of law.

Full post as published by l r c - o r b i t ... the usd research satellite on May 05, 2010 (boomark / email).