Yesterday, just one day before Arizona's controversial immigration law was to go into effect, a federal judge put a last-minute hold on some of the most controversial parts of the law, including the requirement for immigrants to carry papers at all times, and the directive for officers to check the immigration status of people they detain for other reasons.
For civil rights groups who oppose the law, it's a last-minute reprieve. For law enforcement agencies who supported it, it's a disappointing setback. It's been a long three months for supporters and opponents alike since Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed S.B. 1070 into law on April 23rd.
Arizona's controversial immigration law will come into effect tomorrow, unless a federal judge says otherwise. We take a look across the border to Loma Buenavista, Mexico. Sixty percent of the town's population is thought to have crossed the border into Arizona. The 800-person town depends on residents' relatives in the U.S. to send money back home; if their relatives leave, the town stands to be significantly affected by this new law.
On Thursday, Arizona's SB 1070 officially goes into effect, meaning law enforcement will be able to question anyone they suspect to be in the country illegally. Leading up to Thursday, there has been a growing climate of fear among immigrants in the state. Many undocumented families have decided to leave Arizona, some heading to other states and some going back to their home countries. Monday was the first day of school in the Balsz Elementary School District, an area where more than 70 percent of the population is Hispanic. We talk with Superintendent Jeffrey Smith who says that more than 500 students were not in attendance yesterday.
On Friday, in federal court, The League of United Latin American Citizens filed a suit against Arizona’s controversial immigration law. The lawsuit is the seventh to have been filed against the state since Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed S.B. 1070 into law on April 23rd. This suit objects to the guidelines themselves, saying that they welcome officers to question someone’s legal status based on “vague and ill-defined factors."
The Obama administration has filed suit in federal court, challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s tough, controversial new immigration law. SB1070 requires state and local police to question and possibly arrest those who exhibit reasonable suspicion of being in the country illegally. The justice department says that this is a federal job, which should not be handled by lcal law enforcement.
President Barack Obama will meet with Arizona Governor Jan Brewer today. The president opposes Arizona's controversial immigration law, signed by the governor, which is due to take effect next month.
In the wake of Arizona's new immigration law, the state is facing a growing public relations problem, and big potential losses in tourism and other forms of revenue. Everyone from convention-goers to bands on tour are avoiding the state, and the city of Phoenix predicts a loss of $90 million over the next five years because of these cancellations. We want to know from you: If you were to rebrand YOUR state, what slogan would you come up with? Tell us in six words or fewer.
Yesterday, we discussed Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's decision to sign a controversial bill aimed at ending ethnic studies throughout the Tucson schools, and our listeners responded in force. While some were in support of a more generalized historical education, others felt this was yet another blow to the region's Latino community. We listen to what you had to say.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill on Tuesday that will effectively eliminate a particular school district's ethnic studies program. The bill specifically targets Tucson school district's Mexican-American studies program. That district superintendent, Tom Horne, has pushed the bill for years and says he believes ethnic studies programs promote hate and teach Latino kids to believe they were oppressed by white people. This new law makes headlines just weeks after Gov. Brewer put her signature to one of the most controversial immigration bills in the country.
Do you think there's a place for ethnic studies in U.S. history classes?»
In the next few months, Arizona will begin to enforce its new immigration law that allows local law enforcement to ask for documentation from people they suspect of being in the country illegally. But its neighbor, New Mexico, vehemently opposes this law and its own House of Representatives has passed a resolution recognizing economic benefits for undocumented immigrants. The rift between the bordering states could make things tricky for law enforcement.
Instead of their usual jerseys, the Phoenix Suns wore shirts with "Los Suns" inscribed across the chest as they played the Spurs last night. This change in wardrobe was explicitly meant as a nod in support of Arizona's Latino population, and a protest to Arizona's new immigration law, signed by Governor Jan Brewer last week.
This weekend, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into a law a controversial bill that gives local police the power to check documentation of anyone they suspect to be an illegal immigrant. It has sparked a fierce political debate and enraged many in the Hispanic community. But it has also raised concerns over how local police officers will go about enforcing the law and whether it will lead to racial profiling. Others worry it will burden officers who are already busy addressing other crimes in the state.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law one of the toughest immigration laws in the United States. The law requires police to question anyone they believe to be an illegal immigrant. Critics say they believe that this law will lead to wide spread racial profiling. The law also seems to shift the burden of proof onto the defense instead of the prosecution in a country where pratcially everyone knows the term, "innocent until proven guilty."
UPDATED 7:15 p.m.
Alex Goldmark here on the evening shift.
All is well here with a few changes from Anna's post earlier.
For one, police have seized the computers of the Gizmodo blogger who published reports of a "lost" next generation iPhone. And the legal implications of this for journalists, including shield laws, have us debating way more aspects of this case over the cubicle walls than we'll have time for tomorrow.
We're adding another angle to our coverage of Arizona's new immigration law. We'll hear from law professors who will explain how the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof have evolved over time, and where this new law fits. It won't be the first time a class of free and legal Americans will have to be able to prove their status in order to walk the streets of their city.
And our man in DC, Todd Zwillich, is walking the halls of the Capitol right now, mic in hand, monitoring the preliminary votes and opening shenanigans in the financial regulation reform debate in the Senate.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer followed tough words with tough action when signed the "Safe Neighborhoods" bill into law on Friday. State House Bill 1070 is considered to be the nation's strictest law against illegal immigration. Among other changes, the bill requires all immigrants to carry proper identification at all times and broadens the power of local police to detain anybody suspected of immigration violations. State and local leaders who support the bill praise its sweeping reforms and cite the state's violent crime rate as reason alone for strict measures. On the other side of the debate, activists and lawmakers, including President Obama, have called the bill a "misguided" attack on the "basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans."
National correspondent for The New York Times, Randy Archibold, joins us with more on the immigration story; this morning's headlines.
Yesterday, at several bus stations and other locations around Arizona, more than 800 law enforcement officials carried out the largest operation against human smuggling in ICE history. The targets were shuttle bus operations that allegedly carry illegal immigrants around the region and across the border. The tactic of targeting the networks of traffickers rather than carrying out workplace raids reveals a shift in strategy under Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano and President Obama from the policies of the Bush era.
The Navajo nation is a 27,000 square mile nation. It's hard to assess exactly how many people are stranded. It's in the hundreds if not thousands, and of course the problem now is melting snow turning to mud on dirt roads in a very, very rural area. —Gillian Ferris Kohl
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