Critics have said Arizona will be turned into a ‘police state’ after a controversial law giving officers the power to stop suspected illegal immigrants was passed.
In what is one of the toughest measures to be made law in the country, the bill makes it an offence to be in the U.S. without proper documentation.
Officers will be able to stop suspected law-dodgers to check their status.
The measure, long sought by opponents of illegal immigration, passed 35 to 21 in the state House of Representatives.
The state Senate passed a similar measure earlier this year, and Republican governor Jan Brewer is expected to sign the bill.
The bill’s author, state senator Russell Pearce, said it simply ‘takes the handcuffs off of law enforcement and lets them do their job’.
But police were deeply divided on the matter, with unions backing it but the state chief’s association opposing the bill, contending it could erode trust with immigrants who could be potential witnesses.
Immigrant rights groups were horrified, and contended that Arizona would be transformed into a police state.
‘It’s beyond the pale,’ Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said.
‘It appears to mandate racial profiling.’ (1)
(1) That’s because it is Mexicans from Mexico who are jumping the border. We have the pictures…–Ed.