Angela Kelley on Arizona's New Immigration Law

What's going on in Arizona?

Last Friday, the governor of Arizona signed into law a sweeping measure that would basically empower state and local police to arrest anybody that they have a reasonable suspicion is an illegal immigrant. It's a sweeping law, it's a law that's going to cost Arizona a lot of money, it's a law that's probably unconstitutional, and frankly makes Arizona the most hostile state in the United States for not only immigrants but a third of Arizona's population that happens to be Hispanic.

What does this mean for immigrants and nonimmigrants in Arizona?

What this law means for immigrants and nonimmigrants and Latinos and foreign-born in Arizona is that they're going to feel like they have a target on their back - a bull's-eye, if you will. It's going to be so that police can, at any time they come across you, ask you for papers. They can ask you to show that you were born in this country. They're the kind of documents that most of us, frankly, don't carry around. And for people who look foreign, who may speak with an accent, who may listen to a radio station that may be blaring from their car that's in a different language are likely to get pulled over and they're likely to have to ask to show papers. It's very un-American, it's also very unconstitutional, it's very likely to get challenged in the courts and cost Arizona a lot of money. And for a state that's already $3 billion in the hole, it doesn't seem like a wise use of the citizens of Arizona's resources.

What does it mean for national comprehensive immigration reform?

I think what the Arizona law means for national immigration reform is that Congress has to act. Look, this is a shot that's been heard around the country, and that's ringing in lawmakers' ears. It's very clear that we're not going to stop illegal immigration by empowering the police to arrest anyone who looks foreign. It's really clear that we're not going to have control of our borders by permitting police to go after folks just because they have an accent. It's really clear that until we crack down on employers who are hiring people without papers, until we ensure that people are coming with visas and not smugglers, and until we make sure that people register, pay taxes, and come out of the shadows, we're not going to have control of our problem of a broken immigration system. Those are important measures that Arizona simply cannot do. It's not within the state's power to pass sweeping immigration reform - it is within Congress's power. So we can expect, sadly, that other small Arizona measures are likely to pop up in counties and in cities across the country - perhaps in other states. And as long as that continues we're going to have a broken immigration system, we're going to have illegal immigration, and what we really need are the feds to act. This is why lawmakers are elected into office: to solve some tough problems. So what they need to do is pass reform, make sure people are required to register and pay taxes, that employers get on the right side of the law, and that they pay their taxes, and that we know who's coming to this country and if they're the kind of folks we want to have here.