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Arizona and the Justice Department on Immigration

By Annie Banerjee

The justice Department's suit to block the restrictive law in Arizona is heralded by everyone as an "immigration issue." Both Wall Street Journal and New York Times have huge headings under "Immigration Law." But the question is not about immigration law. It is about the fundamental human right to not be judged by the color of our skin.

The proponents of the bill, like Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce say that the bill "prohibits racial profiling." But I wonder if every individual is stopped and asked for their passports. The will cripple business in the State. Will everyone, ie white, black, brown, yellow, and whatever other color or look need to take their passports, birth certificates, etc to Arizona?

I naturalized into this country and is in the highest tax bracket. I work and pay taxes. Yet I am brown and have an accent. As a practitioner of immigration law, I know say for instance white Canadian who are here, in the US, working illegally, but are white and except for a slight "oot and aboot" has no other accent. Who will the Arizona police "catch"?

The lawsuit is also about separate state and federal rights. The Conservative Supreme Court will champion State rights, but it will remain to be seen whether they champion Separation of Powers. My guess is that their judgment will be clouded by the more emotional issue of immigration.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee

Full post as published by US Immigration Matters on July 07, 2010 (boomark / email).