Boycott Arizona

Arizona SB 1070

The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (introduced as Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and thus often referred to simply as Arizona SB 1070) is a legislative act in the U.S. state of Arizona that is the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in decades. The act was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23, 2010. The act's Sponsor, Senator Russell Pearce, called the bill's signing "a good day for America." It is scheduled to go into effect on July 29, 2010, ninety days after the end of the legislative session.

The act makes it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying registration documents required by federal law, requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect that they're in the United States illegally, authorizes state and local law enforcement of federal immigration laws, and cracks down on those sheltering, hiring and transporting illegal aliens. The paragraph on intent in the legislation says it embodies an "attrition through enforcement" doctrine.

The major sponsor of, and legislative force behind, the bill was State Senator Russell Pearce, who had long been one of Arizona's most vocal opponents of illegal immigration and who had successfully pushed through several prior pieces of tough legislation against those he termed "invaders on the American sovereignty". Much of the drafting of the bill was done by Kris Kobach, a professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law and a figure long associated with the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

It is abundantly clear that Arizona SB 1070 encourages racial profiling, yet supporters say the law simply enforces existing federal law. The law was modified by Arizona House Bill 2162 within a week of its signing with the goal of addressing some of these concerns by adding the following text "prosecutors would not investigate complaints based on race, color or national origin."

Link to PDF of Arizona SB 1070

Legal Actions

The United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on July 6, 2010, asking that the law be declared invalid since it interferes with the immigration regulations "exclusively vested in the federal government." In a brief to the press, the department's lawyers referenced the notion of federal preemption and stated that, "The Constitution and the federal immigration laws do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country," and that "The immigration framework set forth by Congress and administered by federal agencies reflects a careful and considered balance of national law enforcement, foreign relations, and humanitarian concerns – concerns that belong to the nation as a whole, not a single state." This pointed to an additional practical argument, that being that the law would result in federal authorities losing focus on their broader priorities in order to deal with an influx of deportations from Arizona. The Justice Department requested that the federal courts issue an injunction to enjoin enforcement of the law before it goes into effect. The suit does not argue that the law will lead to racial profiling, although department officials said they would continue to monitor that aspect when and if the measure went into effect.

On May 17, 2010, a joint class action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of ten individuals and fourteen labor, religious, and civil rights organizations. The legal counsel filing the action, which is the largest of those filed, is a collaboration of the ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

The suit seeks to prevent SB 1070 from going into effect, by charging that it:

  • Violates the federal Supremacy Clause by attempting to bypass federal immigration law
  • Violates the Fourteenth Amendment and Equal Protection Clause rights of racial and national origin minorities by subjecting them to stops, detentions, and arrests based on their race or origin
  • Violates the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech by exposing speakers to scrutiny based on their language or accent
  • Violates the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures because it allows for warrantless searches in absence of probable cause
  • Violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause by being impermissibly vague
  • Infringes on constitutional provisions that protect the right to travel without being stopped, questioned, or detained.

This suit named County's Attorney and Sheriffs as defendants, rather than the State of Arizona or Governor Brewer as the earlier suits had.