Stereotyping

The New York Times reports that on Friday, April 23, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law “the nation’s toughest bill on illegal immigration,” formally titled the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.” The law “would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.” Before this law, CNN explains, “officers could check someone’s immigration status only if that person was suspected in another crime.” Governor Brewer emphasized in her statement that “ ‘my signature today represents my steadfast support for enforcing the law—both AGAINST illegal immigration AND against racial profiling. . . . I will NOT tolerate racial discrimination or racial profiling in Arizona.’ ” Opponents are not convinced. Alessandra Soler Meetze, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arizona, is quoted by the New York Daily News as saying that “ ‘this is a mandate to harass anyone who looks or sounds foreign.’ ” And though it is rare for presidents to “weigh in” on state legislation, Obama responded to the Arizona law, stating that it “threatened ‘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,’ ” the New York Times writes.