The sideshow that is Arizona state politics took a turn for the even stranger last Friday when Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, signed a controversial immigration bill into law. The bill makes it a crime under Arizona state law to be in the country illegally. Illegal immigration is now, in fact, illegal — which raises the question, then, of what it was beforehand.
Such a bizarre law makes sense only within the context of Arizona's illegal immigration battle in Maricopa County, the state's most populous county that is home to both Phoenix and the majority of Arizona's 460,000 illegal immigrants. It was here where, five years ago, Maricopa County's now−infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio began enforcing Arizona's "Coyote law." The law made smuggling illegal immigrants across the U.S./Mexico border a felony punishable by up to two years of jail time. It also classified those smuggled as "co−conspirators" subject to the same penalties as the smugglers themselves.
The new law passed last Friday gives cops the authority to stop anyone suspected of being in the country illegally and, if the suspected person can't produce proper identification, detain him or her. It is now a crime in Arizona to not have proper identification at all times, punishable by a jail sentence of up to six months and a fine of $2,500.
Brewer, facing a tight "re−election" campaign, signed the bill in hopes that it would make her appear more conservative to voters as she seeks to win her first actual election. She replaced Janet Napolitano (D−Ariz.), as per the state's line of succession, after Napolitano left to run the Department of Homeland Security last year. In focusing on the politics of it all, she missed a minor element of the bill, namely its complete lack of constitutionality.
If sheriff's deputies could distinguish illegal immigrants from legal Mexican−Americans with 100 percent accuracy, this law could work. Illegal immigrants are not protected by the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unlawful search and seizure — they are not here legally and have no constitutional rights. Whether or not that violates human rights, however, is debatable.
But there's no way to tell an illegal immigrant from a legal citizen or immigrant just by looks. The chance of a legal, Mexican−American citizen or immigrant being detained just because he can't find his driver's license is quite substantial. A bill permitting such a gross violation of American citizens' constitutional rights is absolutely unacceptable.
But even more important than the bill's unconstitutionality is that fact that it won't work. Illegal immigrants have fled violence and a terrible economy, often risking death in doing so — a six−month jail sentence is not going to convince anyone to stay in Mexico. What it will do, however, is contribute further to the manifestation of the fundamental problem of Mexican immigration to the United States: The prevalence of entire pockets of cities and states where illegal immigrants never mix with the remainder of society, speak only Spanish and ultimately refuse to assimilate into American culture.
Threatening illegal immigrants with jail time will only exacerbate that cultural divergence further and lead to more recalcitrant anti−assimilation sentiment. It will also lead to even less tax revenue from illegal immigrants that would support the public services they already enjoy for virtually nothing — the ever−present threat of arrest will cause a drop in sales tax revenue.
In short, Arizona's new immigration law is nothing but a thinly veiled political maneuver to which Jan Brewer has pinned her political hopes. On top of that, it's entirely unconstitutional and clearly violates the Fourth Amendment. But most importantly, it won't actually reduce illegal immigration. Perhaps Sheriff Joe summed this whole circus up best in a recent interview, responding to criticisms of the new law. He said he had been enforcing immigration law "with no problems," paused, and added, "except with the Justice Department."
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Teddy Minch is a senior majoring in political science. He hosts "The Rundown," a talk show from 3 to 5 p.m. every Friday on WMFO. He can be reached at Theodore.Minch@tufts.edu.
