To the Editors,
After reading the article by Mr. Macasieb that stated his support for Arizona SB 1070 I felt it was necessary that someone with a dissenting perspective should write a response.
The law is one of the strictest measures against illegal immigration passed in decades. The problem with this law is that parts of it are vague and allow for racial profiling. This is a concern because American attitudes towards Latin Americans are growing ever hostile.
Arizona SB 1070 authorizes Arizona officers to question someone’s immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an “alien.” While this does not specifically target any specific group, I suspect that most Arizona officers would not have “reason to suspect” that a Canadian or Irish immigrant was in the country illegally.
I would like to believe that this law is not racially motivated, but I simply cannot. This law is directly related to illegal immigration across the US-Mexico border, and most of the immigrants crossing this border legally and illegally are Latin American; this law is aimed at them.
People are also concerned because this law comes at time when the U.S. immigration policy is confusing, stringent, and makes it almost impossible for people to live in the U.S. unless they have money in their pockets or family in the states.
This is why many Americans are calling for comprehensive immigration reform, and it is also why many people have no other option but to cross the U.S. border illegally.
In his article, Mr. Macasieb says that there is not enough being done to protect the US-Mexico border and this is why Arizona had to create SB 1070. However, this is simply not true. The US-Mexican border is currently protected by a wall that extends over 650 miles and costs anywhere between $2.8 million to $8 million per mile to build.
The border is also patrolled by 17,000 US Border Patrol Officers operating 24 hours a day. With numbers like this I have a hard time believing that the federal government “has done little to secure the border in Arizona” or in any other state along this border. I think there is a greater issue beyond border protection. The issue is the state of the Mexican people.
The Mexican economy is in decline, the unemployment rate is 5 percent and the under employment rate may be as high as 25 percent. Oil reserves have dried up and last year’s outbreak of swine flu caused income from tourism to plummet. On top of this, the drug wars are growing at an exponential rate, and murder rates in cities such as Ciudad Juárez have climbed into the thousands. All of this has caused many of the Mexican people to lose hope.
In attempts to seek relief from these issues some people of Mexico have come to America seeking safety, freedom and work. Others, have turned to cult-like worship of St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes and desperate situations. This increase of illegal immigration and worship of St. Jude shows the desperate state of the Mexican people.
To solve this problem, we don’t need border fences and laws that criminalize people seeking jobs and safety. What we need is compassion.
Racially motivated fear should not be the driving force behind any law, and while Mr. Macasieb may stand with Arizona, I know that I am not alone when I say that I stand with and for people and their dignity.
Chad Landrum
history sophomore
