The Arizona Immigration Law (SB1070) has caused a major divide in the state and country. Polling numbers currently are on the side of those supporting it.
Surveyed voters have said they wanted their states to pass a law similar to Arizona’s by 48 percent to 35 percent.
Do you think the Immigration Enforcement Law will survive the challenges? Should other states adopt similar laws?
What’s the main problem (if any) with this Law? Is it a given that the LGBT community supports this law as a civil rights issue, or is the community divided on this as well?
Tags: Immigration Arizona, LGBT rights, SB1070
This is a civil rights issue, plain and simple. The law being imposed does not help solve any illegal immigration issues, and is only going to cause problems for law enforcement.
I DO NOT SUPPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, but I also can’t support this law. Hopefully the Federal government can stop it before it is too late.
Being of Mexican heritage AND gay, this hits home for me. My family has been here (legally) for 3 generations now. It is not fair that people are coming here illegally, but I also know how hard it is to get through the process.
No one should be treated badly because of the color of their skin, their religion, their sexuality, or anything else. BUT, it also does not mean we should ignore the laws that exist. This particular law, I can’t support. Fixing the illegal immigration issue, I support completely. I guess that makes me kind of in the middle. I do not want anyone’s civil rights violated, but I do not like the mess we are in.
This is a tragedy, The only people who are saslvating over this is Sherriff Joe, who now can break the law leagaly, and Russel Pierce and friends who are vested in the Private Prision System, Where they will make big money off every illegal person they can lock up for whatever time it takes to deport them, 3 months to ??? Its all a scam.. Until the state government is cleansed of the old Republican conservative waco’s, voting in their own interests, there will be no change, Just wait, now their on to taking citizenship from children born here in the US cause their parents were illegal. whats next, abomination of gays and gay rights.. you watch..We need to come together as citizens of AZ., gay straight, men, women , all races, and get these selve serving bastards out..the sooner the better. SB 1070 does nothing to address ilegal immigration, it just allows the rich to leagaly get richer.. do the research, these people will stop at nothing to push their agenda. I’m not big on comspiracy, but that Rancher that was killed when SB1070 was going thru the house on its way to the senate, the best they coul do is leak out the word illegal immigrant, when they have no proof what so ever, they say they followed tracks for 20 miles to the border… thats odd, its so dry down there you couldent track a cow for a mile.. my guess is Militia or our own BP.. What a cover up!! Investigate, Do the math, Follow the money. COME ON PEOPLE….WAKE UP !!!!!
OPPOSE, OPPOSE, OPPOSE.
Who will be the next targeted group to hate and assign second class citizenship to?
SUPPORT IT,,,and it is word for word what the FED law says that has been on the books for 60 years…
IF the FEDS would do their job then AZ (were i live) would not have had to take matters into their own hands,,,and if people would bother to READ it they would see it is NOT a racial issue,,only those who are here ILLEGALY are trying to make it a racial issue…
ILLEGAL IS ILLEGAL…plain and simple….it cant be said any clearer….
It looks like I’m in the minority.. I agree , no one’s civil rights should be violated …but some thing needs to be done to stop the flow of illegals into our country ..not just Mexicans, lots of others nationalities are here taking advantage of the systems that are in place for American citizens…..@ a cost to the legal citizens…nothing is free .
If you want the American dream come in the front ..not the back door. Tired of the demonstrations too ..you folks that are so gung ho on non citizens rights ..wake up..or maybe you should stand up and put your money where your mouths are …I’m for You paying extra taxes to support all the programs that are needed for our non legal brothers and sisters and their extended families. Lesbian Mexican citizen in favor of ….SB ACTION..its about time .
OPPOSE!
The new Arizona law mirrors federal law, which already requires aliens (non-citizens) to register and carry their documents with them (8 USC 1304(e) and 8 USC 1306(a)). The new Arizona law simply states that violating federal immigration law is now a state crime as well. OK – BUT:
The law only allows police to ask about immigration status in the normal course of “lawful contact” with a person, such as a traffic stop or if they have committed a crime. Before asking a person about immigration status, law enforcement officials are required by the law to have “reasonable suspicion” that a person is an illegal immigrant. The law specifically states that police, “may not solely consider race, color or national origin” when implementing SB 1070.
My opinion is that the “normal” and “reasonable” is open to a wide range of interpretation and can be easily used to suit one’s position. SB 1070 specifically appears to be targeting Hispanics. What other immigrant groups are of concern to Arizona residents?
I believe that this law can be used as a tool for vindictiveness, an increase in racial profiling and an erosion of civil rights if in the wrong hands (bigots, racists, xenophobes).
Haven’t we learned anything from events in the history of this country – from the annihilation of the Native Americans, through the bloody struggles of emancipation, through the upheavals associated with the Civil Rights movement of 50 years ago, and the current homophobia of some sectors of the population?
I don’t believe in enforcing a broken system, which is exactly what our current federal immigration policy is. Broken. I don’t believe that states should take matters into their own hands regarding federal issues. It is up to the federal government to enact immigration reform and it is up to the states to protect their communities.
NOTHING in SB1070 secures our borders. No where does it state that crime will decrease, our economy will recover and that there will be a better quality of life for our citizens. It’s simply a law of hate fueled by greed and fear.
There is NO VALID statistical data showing the amount of crime, violence, and economic impact directly attributed to undocumented persons in our state. None.
And the people voicing their concerns regarding this discriminatory law are not just the undocumented, there are many people across the country and around the world speaking out against this hateful policy.
I respect this article’s intent, but we can’t bundle up civil rights. can we? We have tried within our own community to do so, and it really doesn’t work. I am aware that there are a lot of L,G&B’s that don’t understand or support the T that has bundled in to the GLBT community, and I am sure there are plenty of “T”s that don’t feel they should be bundled with a community that is based on sexual orientation. I mean, being Trans is VERY different from being Gay or Bi. I also know being a Trans Chicano, is very different from being an illegal citizen of a bordering country. So where does it start and where does it begin?
There is too much here, too many issues to fight for. The illegals are not helpless. They got here right? Everyone should stick to fighting their own battles, help those who cannot stand up for themselves would be decent but, let flip this, how many illegals, true Mexicans, do you think support the GLBT community?
I am Mexican, and if we start with the Mexicans I know, they think we are freaks, we are oddities and if Mexicans were so supportive of the GLBT community don’t you think Mexico would have all the GLBT rights that we feel America should?
Just a thought.
The problem with this law is that it encourages, almost requires, police officers to demand ID of anyone who looks Hispanic, and at it’s roots, despite the protestations to the contrary by its proponents, is based on racism. Furthermore, the term “illegal alien” is a misnomer because being an alien in the US without a proper visa is not a felony, nor is it a misdemeanor; the only action the federal government can take under the law is deportation. They can’t even be tried in court, because there’s no law in our criminal code that they violate simply by being here. (Of course, if they commit an actual crime that is against the law, they can be arrested and tried for that, but that’s a different matter entirely.)
SB 1070 is not the answer to undocumented aliens, period.
Touchy subject this SB1070. Civil Rights? Human Rights? Illegal? Legal?
If we say illegal is illegal, then how do we justify wanting gay rights in states with sodomy laws?
How do we ask for same sex marriage in states that say marriage is only between a man and a woman?
In many states it is illegal to spit on the sidewalk. So should anyone seen chewing tobacco automatically be stopped and questioned because the may or may not spit on the sidewalk?
Illegal may be illegal, but that does not mean the law being imposed is a good or fair one.
I am not from Arizona, but it seems to me like things are more of a mess there then they are in other states. Why not have this law? Unemployment is up, crime is up, and it seems that a whole lot of places are going to boycott AZ now, so how does anything get better without this law?
The border is out of control and the government won’t even finish the wall.
We desperately need real immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for those who want it, and a valid work program for those who are here to earn money and then return home. And we need to openly acknowledge that our economy is dependent on immigrant labor. The same politicians who are screaming for action against the immigrant population are the ones who were courting them 20 years ago to come to Arizona where the jobs are…
Our American history is sadly replete with examples of xenophobia… “No Irish need apply” signs in store windows during the Potato Famine… The Chinese brought in to help build the railroads who suddenly became “The Yellow Peril” once the tracks were laid. As far back as the 1790′s, the Germans were not welcome. In the mid 1850′s there was great anti-Catholic fervor, leading to riots in New York City. In the 1900′s, Italians and Poles were declared “undesirable.”
The saddest part of this history and our current events is that the politicians in power know how to use distrust of the “other” to further their own agenda. Rile the people against a common “foe,” even when the allegations are lies and urban myth, and you can sway the masses to your whim.
SB 1070 is unconstitutional. The lawyers know it. The politicians know it. But, boy, can it distract the public from the things that really need fixing!
I do not support ANY policy, rule, so-called law, or procedure that singles out a group and violates basic human rights. SB 1070 allows (or some people say demands) that people can be stopped and questioned even if they have done NOTHING to warrant questioning. That is a violation of our United States human rights, which declares that a person cannot be stopped and randomly queried unless their BEHAVIOR leads the police officer to think a crime may have been committed. Want to be questioned about your sexuality because of the way you look or dress? This is a slippery slope that threatens all groups.
I’ve given some thought to this law, and it really doesn’t change anything about how the police do their business when it comes to persons here without permission.
First, police offiers are sworn to uphold the law; they had this requirement before SB 1070 and they will have it long after; they had and continue to have discretion when making decisions in the field. Either one trusts the police to be fair and just or one doesn’t. How does discretion come into play in SB 1070? Either the officer decides he has reasonable suspicion or he doesn’t. They make those “calls” every single day in the field in deciding what to do in a situation based on teh facts at hand.
Does this bill lead to profiling? Maybe…like a black person driving a trick out cadillac in south phoenix beckons a stop; like a bald headed mexican with sleeves (tatts up and down the arm) beckons a polce contact; like a stringy haired white guy driving an El Camino beckons contact; like a clean cut white boy cruising a neighborh at 9th avenue and buckeye beckons an officer. In short, all law enforcment agencies profile depending on what they are looking for on any given day. TSA profiles every day at every airport. This bill is either a tool or a weapon. Either we trust the cops to do what’s fair and just or we don’t.
It’s not the police we should be worrying about. It is our neighbors who support this law wholeheartedly without giving a damn about the collateral consequences. It is those same neighbors who voted to take away marraige rights, it is those neighbors who in the name of state’s rights, can apparently give or take away any rights under propositions and/or ballot initiatives. To that end, who will they want to get rid of next? That is my real worry about this law, it gives our legislators (through the will of the public) carte blance to treat people as “less than”, and that scares me.
If our neighbors can’t live by thier own supposed Christian principles (love our neighbors as ourselves) and use their Christianity and bible thumping as a way to discriminate (anything having to do with gays), then we will continue to see bills and legislations such as this. This bill is only the beginning.
Except for some indigenous people, we are all immigrants. My great grandparents came from Ireland. They were hated, called criminals, were blamed for unemployment etc. Sound familiar? SB1070 was written by the same type of people that my grandparents had to endure. They must have be biased or they wouldn’t have written the law the way they did.
I ditto what Dott in Sun City says, very nice summary!
And I am so sad to realize that many, many people just don’t have much heart or compassion when it comes to supporting basic rights for fellow human beings. So sad how easily ‘we’ turn on our neighbors when it suits us.
wow, as we know all laws are enforced as written and this law would in now way affect the latino community. You’re right illegal is illegal, and these people regardless of the lives they have built, the families they have created, the investment we have spent on schools, communities and livlihood should not be respected or appreciated but instead … See Morereturned like used merchandise . We should corral them like cattle, throw them back across the border and watch them all suffer and die, because of course documentation proves human value, its sort of like a seal of approval.
And I am sure that no law officer, public official or any of the like will point fingers, create unjust reasons for asking for documentation and will never assume that just because a person speaks Spanish that they must be “illegal” and therefore ask for their identification. I am sure in an Arpaio influenced envrionment of social change no one would dare ever raise suspect because that person is latino, you’re right, this would never happen in Arizona, we value and cherish all our people equally.
Glad to see we live in a plain and simple world where each life is respected, each person is valued and lives are not destroyed. I am glad that as a community we have fought to ensure equal rights for all our citizens. Why wouldn’t we want to embrace SB1070, it’s a fair resolution to the immigration issue.
Reality?
Opposed! It is not just about SB 1070- it is about the dehumanization that is occuring in this state with a number of other bills and “edicts”…English only in our schools, segregation of ELL students from general education population (4 hours a day), teachers with foreign accents banned from classrooms, ethnic study programs banned, people are denied protection from domestic violence shelters, health care, food and now it is proposed that electric and water services be denied unless one can prove legal status. And where in the federal law does it state that a citizen can be arrested if they are transporting an undocumented person?
On the other hand, who wants hard working, family loving, Catholic (for the most part), pro life, anti gay marrige folks living in their community? Perhaps if they all leave this state could turn Blue!
I sincerely hope the GLBT community opposes SB1070 loudly, proudly, & for all the right reasons!! Reasons like: it’s unconstitutional, it’s written in a way that guarantees racial profiling by some law enforcement, it won’t help the really big problem of human/drug smuggling, it’s hateful & its sponsors fully intended for it to spread fear! Anyone that is even slightly aware of history knows that the spreading of fear leads to way too many examples of man’s inhumanity to man! The GLBT community should be out front on this and fully aware of the up-&-coming power of the Latino vote! Civil rights are everyone’s business, especially minorities’!!
This law is about so much more than illegal immigration. It’s about separating people, it’s about denying human rights, it’s about fear, it’s about politics, it’s about scapegoating, it’s about diverting your attention from the real issues, it’s about power and control – and white men fearing they are losing it.
Our country was born in slavery where women were chattel. It has been a steady expansion of rights from then on; that is the beauty of it. When I stand in a grocery store line with a Hispanic woman check out clerk, a Muslim man in front of me and a Black woman behind me I say – This is the America I love. Not the closed minded, fearful xenophobes.
I have lived and traveled abroad a lot and people are shocked that we are not required to carry identification papers in the U.S. That is part of a free country – where people are accepted for who they are and what they bring not the color of their skin or the way they talk.
Problems need to be addressed. But if you want to look at drug use, look at the American demand, not the supply. We rejoiced when they tore down the wall in Berlin, and we decry the wall in Israel, but now some want to build a wall here. It’s not the answer. NAFTA was a great cause of the migration flow when it destroyed small farmers and businesses in Mexico. Employers want and need the immigrants because Americans won’t do these jobs.
Look beyond the narrow lense and see the bigger picture.
I OPPOSE SB1070. Its not going to secure the borders or stop human trafficking, which is what they intended SB1070 for. I and my family are citizens born and raised here in Arizona, the only thing SB1070 has done is dehumanized us. I have noticed a significant change in the way people at the workplace, supermarket, bank and even at the bars and clubs look at me, and NO its not because I’m a Lesbian. I really wish that people who agree with SB1070 could be in my shoes an hear the negative comments directed to me and my family. I agree with DOT in sun city we really need immigration reform and yes history repeats itself over and over again, First it was African American, and women then Gay and Lesbians now its Mexicans. Boy am I fucked not only am I a woman I’m Lesbian and I’m Mexican!!!!!
Thank you ‘nTouch for this forum. If I’ve learned anything about our community in the years that I have been aware of “us” as a community as that we are very diverse in our backgrounds, experiences and opinions. Still, I find it hard to understand how some in the LGBT, considering our long history of oppression and marginalization, do not identify with other oppressed and marginalized people. To me it is really simple. To partially quote Lila Watson, my liberation is bound up with the liberation of other oppressed people.
I think TK makes a good point about the “what part of illegal don’t you understand?” argument: If we say illegal is illegal, then how do we justify wanting gay rights in states with sodomy laws?
How do we ask for same sex marriage in states that say marriage is only between a man and a woman?
Who, him? says: I am Mexican, and if we start with the Mexicans I know, they think we are freaks, we are oddities and if Mexicans were so supportive of the GLBT community don’t you think Mexico would have all the GLBT rights that we feel America should?
Who, him? says that he doesn’t feel welcome by the Mexican community, and that may be the case. A couple of points I would make in response: first, you may be aware that there is a burgeoning LGBT movement in Mexico and in fact they just recently had a pretty major pride event/parade (in Mexico City I think)-some straight friends of mine stumbled across the parade while vacationing and joined in.
The movement there is making headway. As for not being accepted, I can tell you that I teach in an urban school that is almost 100% Hispanic. I am far from being closeted. My kids and their parents see my drive into the parking lot in my car w/ rainbow sticker. The older kids know what that’s about. Some kids have approached a middle school lesbian teacher (who they guessed was lesbian) and expressed curiosity as well as a few asking for help and guidance. My point is that I believe that many of my parents know that I’m gay. They also know that I work my ass off to do right by their kids, and that’s what’s important to them. And they are almost to a person very hardworking people who want what’s best for their kids. I have a great relationship with the parents of most of my students. If we stay separate, we will always have “out there” stereotypes of each other: Anglos will continue to think the Mexicans are lazy and here for a handout, Mexicans will think we are freaks.
As to the law, SB1070 itself-for all the lip-service that our governor and others give to this law as cracking down on drug smuggling and crime, this bill does nothing to address crime. Our governor has suggested that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants who come here are not coming to find work, but rather to commit violent and drug related crimes. If that is the case, then this bill, SB1070 would address that. It doesn’t. I’ve read it. Here are the numbers:
Number of times SB1070 mentions the words drug cartel: 0.
Number of times SB1070 mentions the words “work” or “labor:” 48.
I’m with Conor. We’re all immigrants, and many of us come from people who, at various points in U.S. history, faced hostility and discrimination because of their origins. When will we learn that all privilege is a matter of majority rule and collective (often wrong-headed) hunch?
SB 1070 puts the common Arizona practice of arresting people for driving while (looking) Mexican into law. It’s wrong.
no support here for SB1070. racist,bigotry and inhumane. Nazi like. Immigrants have been migrating
here forever…why now are we so paranoid and nuts…the path to citizenship is a rough trail..
Fed Gov. needs to get off it’s lazy paid collective butt and fix the matter. Coyotes and drug running
a whole nuther matter…but taking it out on people who are here, law abiding hard working people..
just plain nuts…I was born in this State and I still believe it is kind of a closed, hard core, wasp,
mormonish, anti diversity place….schools were segregated, Indians went to Phx Indian school,
blacks were hardly welcome from old Carver High..”mexicans” lived in true “ghettos” and were
trucked to jobs, the Casinos sit on Indian Reservations where people actually lived …..Jews were not
welcome and gays…no way….no way….closet was pretty big..
I moved from here and after 25 years away..a few things have changed…. a little more diversity
in races, tolerance of gays and various religions…but the underlying hostility and racism is still there..
I could not believe we had a democrat for a Governor!! boy did she run like hell for a cush job
with Obama!! left us in the dust man!!!!! what I see going on here now…egads..very scary…
Yes…folks should get here legally..but it is not a huge crime to be here as undocumented..
Sheriff Joe has just gone off his tree…and we must find a way to manage those who are here and
are contributing…get on the tax rolls and social security pay in’s etc..no free rides…but most
are not criminals….and JOe is not the SS….geesh…where is common sense?
gs
Very nice!…
Wow you are very very talented!! keep up the awesome work. You are very talented & I only wish I could write as good as you do
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