Term Paper on "Arizona Immigration Law"

Term Paper 8 pages (2336 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Arizona immigration law is one of the most controversial laws to be passed regarding the issue of illegal migration in the United States. In this paper we present a description of how the issues of the Arizona immigration law are understood by various persons and authorities. This is done with on the strict basis of the current formulation. In the process of carrying out the description, we mainly we adopt a modernist view point. This is executed how it affects issues regarding individualism, universal truth and the necessary step of inevitable progress towards certain pre-determined outcomes. Further in our analysis of the Arizona Immigration law, we provide an alternative description of the issue by means of perspectives derived from social constructionist, critical as well as postmodernist views. The paper provides alternative approaches to resolutions of the illegal immigration problem. Eventually we compare and contrast the approaches suggested with the ones that are presently in use. This is done as a recommendation to resolving the problem appropriately.

Introduction

The Arizona SB 1070 is what can be termed as an extraordinary law. This is because of the extraordinary circumstances and moments in which it was passed into law in the United States and its subsequent adoption by various other states. The law contains clauses that have generated extreme reactions from various political leaders, religions leaders, commentators and various other persons within and without the larger American communities. The main issues that the bill seems to violate are those of race, sovereignty, foreign relations, and powers of the state, security and civil rights. The issues mentioned above form a critical part of the public life and therefore, make a considerable part of public debates. The substance at hand is indeed also contains core content that can make part of scholarly discourse.

Overview of the Arizona immigration Law and the key points of contention

The Arizona immigration law was passed by Governor Jan Brewer and is considered toughest bill that targets the issue of illegal immigration. The main aim of the bill is to aid in identifying, prosecuting and subsequently deport the arrested illegal immigrants. This bill has attracted a considerable amount of public outcry as it is viewed as a legalization of various social vices such as racism. Its signing resulted to immediate protests all over the U.S. And opened up old wounds that have marked the issue of immigration reforms all over the Unites States of America. The U.S. President Obama also criticized the bill moments before it was signed and even called for a total overhaul of the entire federal immigration law system. According to President Obama, the Arizona law was a great threat since it tended to "to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe."

In some people's opinion, the Arizona immigration law is a disgrace to the United States since it encourages certain acts that are considered archaic in the current society. The aspects of the bill that reflect old thoughts worth abolishing are the requirements by the bill that it is an offence not to posses one's identification documents (it is considered a crime) and the other fact is that the bill gives police considerable amount of authority to detail any body who is suspected of being an illegal immigrant. This move has been considered by several observers as being a very open invitation for harassment by the police authority and an express and legalized discrimination against all Hispanics without regard to their status of citizenship.

The bill can be viewed as a violation of the Hispanics' rights .According to one cardinal Roger Mahony from Los Angeles, the style used by the authorities in demanding for the identification documents can be compared to Nazism (Archibold, 2010). This is despite the fact that the proponents of the bill such as the Arizona governor feel that it is necessary since it is a representative of yet another tool to be used by the state of Arizona to be used in solving its crises that are caused by illegal immigration. A crisis which they distance themselves from creating and at the same time blame the federal government for not caring about.

The Arizona law can be viewed as draconian and the repercussions can be great to the American people. It is possible that its extremities can result to subsequent fear, mistrust within the community and even increase crime.

It is common in other countries such as France for the law enforcement officers to demand for identity documents on various subways, highways and other public spots. Arizona however is the America's first for the demanding of identification documents to be d from a specific group of people (Hispanics).

From a modernist view point, the move by the State of Arizona to enact the illegal immigration law can be considered a success since statistics show clearly that the number of illegal immigrants has reduced considerably as a result of the bill. This is either through the fear of being prosecuted or after being arrested. The Arizona governor's efforts to quench the critics' outcry are also rather vague. She addresses their concern by promising that the police will be equipped with proper training to ensure that they don't overstep their mandate while implementing the immigration law. It is quite obvious that there would be cases of victimization and the policing in this state will be greatly impacted on the negative. The obvious cause of concern would be racial profiling. A vice which the governor promised would not be tolerated. Incidences such as the killing of rancher in the southern part of Arizona are a clear indication of the political tension that the issue has generated.

Racial profiling is described as a "form of discrimination by law enforcement initiated action based on an individual's race, ethnicity or national origin rather than on the individuals behavior or on information identifying the individual as having engaged in criminal activity" (Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, 2007).The biggest question on everybody's mind is whether the law authorizes racial profiling. The truth is that the bill does encourage racial profiling and in fact in authorizes it. It is however interpreted by various lawyers that the application of SB1079 is somehow uncertain (). The fact that certain Arizonian public officials are vehemently stating that the bill does not in any way support or encourage racial profiling; the reality is that the various texts and statement in the bill's statutes that clearly spell out the opposite. The reality of the matter is that even though the various statutes in the bill can be interpreted to forbid the act of racial profiling, it becomes inevitable for the law enforces to commit the act since that basic function of the bill is to discourage illegal immigrants whose majority is of the Hispanic ethnic group.

The downside of the Law to the state of Arizona include fear which would lead to less visitors in the town as everybody will be afraid of being stopped, interrogated and detained subsequently. This can be viewed as a breach of individuals' rights of travel and free speech. Certain states who decry the Arizonian immigration law have considered the possibility of imposing certain economic sanctions against it. The repercussions can be enormous for the corporate America since various forms of boycotts can affect the way business is conducted in major towns and cities. An example is the boycott at Sacramento city that had major repercussions on the city's economy.

Racism as a social construction

The theme of social construction dispels all forms of common and socially acceptable views to presents unique view points for various issues affecting the society. With a social constructionist point-of-view, we acquire a non-simplistic approach to the issue at hand but we pay great attention to both the pitfalls of a given idea (illegal immigration law) as well as the promises which accompany the move (Gersen, 1999).

The subject of social construction is marred with cases of identity politics as noted by Gersen (1999).In the illegal immigration law of Arizona, there are several cases in which prominent members of the Hispanic community come out to standby and protect 'their people' against what they consider as a draconian law. Both forms of the divide tend to essentialize their item people. The Hispanics essentialize their own as important and being endangered while the other persons in Arizona also see the Hispanics as a major security threat and therefore threat to their own existence.

As pointed out by Guhname (2010),it is possible that racism and the discrimination that the opponents of the Arizonian immigration law experience is just as a result of social construction. In a study conducted among various blacks, it was revealed that their conception of racism really differed greatly. Their answers to various standard questions tailored to test their view of racism shown a lot of disparities. Their answers were however consistent to… READ MORE

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