It is clear that Chris Moody, despite his attempts to seem educated and informed, is exactly the opposite. Like most opponents of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB1070, he has clearly never even read the actual bill.
Mr. Moody claims that if passed, this legislation would allow police officers to question anyone they wish about his or her immigration status, using race as the determining factor regarding who they specifically question.
Yet, anyone who has actually read SB1070 will realize that such a statement is an egregious error.
Within the bill, specific provisions outline two important factors that negate Mr. Moody’s allegations. Here, I quote directly from SB1070’s text:
“For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of this state (Arizona) or a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person.”
What this means in layman’s terms is that Arizona law enforcement cannot merely pull someone off the street because they suspect they are an illegal alien.
A person must already be involved in some other police incident (typically by committing another crime) to be checked for his or her immigration status.
This is contrary to Mr. Moody’s assertion that, “legal immigrants henceforth need to have proof of citizenship at all times.”
Obviously, if a legal immigrant does not plan on committing a crime, there is no need to carry proof of his or her legal status.
Case closed.
But what about Mr. Moody’s charge that this will invite racial profiling?
If he actually read SB1070, he would find again that his assertions are misinformed.
I quote again:
“A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not solely consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection.”
If this isn’t clear enough, I’ll explain.
It means that the “cops” can’t question your status just because of your color or looks.
Therefore, instead of various opponents of this law attempting to paint this legislation with the convenient brush of racism and bigotry in order to prevent the enactment of a legitimate state law, they should do a little more investigation into the liberal talking points they hear out of the mouths of Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman.
Wyatt Zinninger is a political science major at Santa Fe College.
