Arisona: I Haven't Forgotten You, I Will Get Back To You

I promise.

Arizona Backs Down. Sorta Kinda.

Battered by the media tsunami caused by Arizona's "show us your papers" law and the resulting lawsuits and threats of boycotts, Arizona's legislature today sought cover by seeking to moderate provisions of SB 1070. Are these real changes or are they just cosmetic changes and an effort to save face? It's probably some of each. Put another way, those who oppose the law can know that their outrage is being heard and felt. But the changes don't eliminate the problem, they just provide cover for it.

The Arizona Daily Star reports:

State lawmakers voted late Thursday to repeal one of the more controversial provisions from the new law aimed at illegal immigration....

HB 2162, approved by the House and Senate, changes the law to specify that when deciding whom to question about immigration status, police may not use race, ethnicity or national origin as a factor.

That is a significant change from SB 1070 as it was approved by lawmakers and signed less than a week ago by Gov. Jan Brewer. That version of the law permits police to consider any of those factors when deciding if there is "reasonable suspicion" someone is not in this country legally, as long as it is not the only reason for investigating further.

There's more, of course:

As originally approved, SB 1070 requires police to determine the immigration status of those with whom they have "lawful contact" if there is reasonable suspicion the person is not here legally.

That "reasonable suspicion" language remains. But the language about "contact" is replaced with a reference to "stop, detention or arrest." Paul Senseman, the governor's spokesman, said the changes effectively reduce checking immigration status to "secondary enforcement."

"There have to be other steps, such as another law being broken first," he said, before an officer could, with reasonable suspicion, inquire if a person is a citizen or legal resident.

He compared it to Arizona's seat-belt laws: Police cannot stop a motorist solely because the person is unbuckled. But officers can issue a ticket for failing to buckle up if the driver is stopped for some other reason.

Join me in Nogales.

So there are two changes in the new law, HB 2162. Under the first, the cops aren't allowed to use race, ethnicity or national origin as a factor in deciding whether somebody should be approached while waiting for a bus, for example. Under the second, the cops aren't allowed to ask anybody about their immigration status unless the person is first a subject of a legal stop, detention or arrest.

Effectively, that means that the new law, if signed by the Governor and followed by the police, will at least nominally stop the spectre of police approaching people who are doing nothing illegal and asking them to produce their papers. Cops will not be able to go up to people waiting at Tucson bus stops and after sizing up their shoes, or shirt, or hat, or newspaper ask them for papers. To do that, cops will first legally have to stop, detain or arrest the person. Once that threshold has been met, the immigration questions and demands for documents will ensue.

This doesn't mean what whacko Arizona legislators now understand the constitutional rights of people within the state's borders. Far from it. Look at this discussion of the provision eliminating race, ethnicity or national origin as a factor in deciding whether to approach someone:

Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, defended the original provision as being relevant, saying 90 percent of those in this country illegally are from Mexico and points south....

What the change does, Pearce said, is remove a target for foes, both those in court and those criticizing the measure in speeches and demonstrations.

"I'm just tired of the games played by the left," he said. Pearce said making the change and leaving pretty much everything else the same "strengthens the bill's ability of being enforced without letting the left leverage bad stuff."

Nice. Unconstitutionality is now the equivalent of "bad stuff" the "left leverage[s]." But Pearce, and I suppose other Arizona legislators remain unrepentant:

Pearce said he doesn't believe either change will make it harder for an officer to question someone who is suspected of being an illegal immigrant. "The reason we made these clarifications is to make it a stronger case in court," he said. "This is a tough bill. We didn't water it down."

Put another way, the legislators have called up a dog whistle to the cops. And statutory language be damned, they know what to do.

I'm not calling off my boycott.

Arizona: All Hail The Emerging Police State

Arizona has apparently decided to use its police force as an instrument to oppress and harass Mexican appearing people within its borders. And, as you might expect from a police state, it is doing so at the expense of protecting citizens and diverting law enforcement from its traditional functions, enforcing the penal laws.

Linda Greenhouse, who usually writes about the Supreme Court for the New York Times, had an op-ed yesterday, "Breathing While Undocumented," that captures Arizona as the emerging police state it truly is:

What would Arizona’s revered libertarian icon, Barry Goldwater, say about a law that requires the police to demand proof of legal residency from any person with whom they have made “any lawful contact” and about whom they have “reasonable suspicion” that “the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States?” Wasn’t the system of internal passports one of the most distasteful features of life in the Soviet Union and apartheid-era South Africa?

And in case the phrase “lawful contact” makes it appear as if the police are authorized to act only if they observe an undocumented-looking person actually committing a crime, another section strips the statute of even that fig leaf of reassurance. “A person is guilty of trespassing,” the law provides, by being “present on any public or private land in this state” while lacking authorization to be in the United States — a new crime of breathing while undocumented. The intent, according to the State Legislature, is “attrition through enforcement.”

The rest of the op-ed is definitely worth reading. But there's another point that deserves to be made about the Arizona statute.

What is the effect of this crazy state statute on law enforcement in Arizona and how law enforcement fulfills its usual role, not as an agent of BICE enforcing the federal immigration laws, but in investigating actual crimes and making arrests for them? The answer to that question: it's a complete, unmitigated disaster.

Let's suppose there is a robbery. Let's suppose the person who is robbed at gunpoint is undocumented. After the mugging, when the robber has disappeared with her purse and credit cards and other documents and her money, does the victim call the cops to report the robbery? Maybe not. After all, she's "trespassing" in the US. And the police who come to interview her about the robbery are clearly making a "lawful contact" with her. After she provides her name and address, might they stumble in their conversation with her upon a "reasonable suspicion" to ask her for her immigration documents? Maybe. And if you forget about the procedural niceties, as I'm sure the police will, isn't she inviting the double whammy: first she's mugged, and then she's arrested on suspicion of being undocumented because she called the cops.

But what if the victim of the mugging is legally in the US? If that victim is legally in the US, because she's a citizen or has obtained the right papers, will she be able to display her papers for the gendarmes investigating the robbery, to show that she shouldn't be arrested? Of course not. Don't be silly. They were supposed to be in her purse. And her purse is now gone. Knowing this, does she call the cops to report a robbery? I don't know the answer, but I note that there's a new, powerful disincentive for dialing 911. The disincentive is arrest and detention while notoriously slow BICE sorts out her status.

These are legitimate fears that reporting a crime will end up badly for the victim. Faced with these possibilities, do crime victims report crimes against them? Do they report crimes to which they are witnesses? Do they dial 911 to ask for help when there's a crime, or an accident, or an injury? If you dial 911, you think that the police will respond to your call. And when they do, aren't you, whether you're documented or not, going to be having "lawful contact" with them? Is this exercise of civic responsibility going to turn out badly for you?

This is why local cops shouldn't be working on the immigration issue. Ever. This is why they shouldn't be asking about immigration status. Society in general needs victims of crimes and witnesses to their occurrence to be able freely to call the cops. To dial 911. When you introduce incentives not to call, not to get involved, not to see what happened, not to talk to cops, everyone in society is that much less safe.

Do the Arizona legislators and the Governor care about this? Evidently not. They'd rather go on a vendetta against the Latino population of their state than think for a nanosecond about the consequences of their racism. They've made everyone in Arizona less safe. They should take responsibility for that.

Papers Please/Papeles Por Favor

Please add the following update to your travel guides about visiting Arizona. It may be of assistance in avoiding discussions with Arizona law enforcement, arrest and detention, and harassment. If you already live in Arizona, something I wish on no one, you already know everything I am about to say. I am writing this so that others may reflect on your situation.

This is a bus stop in Tucson, Arizona. I know it doesn't look like a bus stop in New York, or Chicago, or New Orleans. This is an Arizona bus stop:



There are some things that are very important if you are waiting for the bus at such a stop in Arizona. These are not listed in order of importance. One of these things is not to wear shoes that look like Huaraches. This is a huarache:



If you wear this kind of foot gear, foot gear that was worn in Arizona and Mexico before 1500, police might think they should approach you.

Another thing not to do is wear a guayabera. This is a guayabera:



Guayaberas are incredibly comfortable and stylish wear in warm places. Like Arizona. Guayaberas probably come originally from Cuba, but they are popular throughout Central America. And Mexico. And some people think they originated in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. If you wear this kind of shirt, a shirt that has been worn throughout this hemisphere for more than 100 years, and was worn in Arizona before it became a state, police might think they should approach you.

Another thing not to do is read newspapers in Spanish. This is what a Spanish language newspaper looks like:



Spanish language newspapers are really helpful if you're trying to learn Spanish, a language which will soon be spoken by more than half of the people in the US. Some Spanish language newspapers have wonderful local coverage and fantastic sports coverage. If you want that information, you can read the paper. And of course, there are a lot of people who just find it easier to read a Spanish language paper than an English one. Because Spanish is their original language. Nevertheless, if you read this kind of newspaper while you're waiting for a bus, the police might think they should approach you.

A burrito is a flour tortilla wrapped or folded around a filling. The important part of the burrito is that it is made with a tortilla, and it looks like this:



If you are eating tortillas in any form-- burrito, tacos, enchiladas, totopos-- while waiting for a bus, the police might think they should approach you.

There is one other thing that will probably make the police think they should approach you. This is probably the most important, though some Arizona officials deny it. You probably know what this is. If you are brown skinned, or the police think you appear to be stereotypically Mexican, the police might think they should approach you. It does not matter to them that you are a US citizen and that your family has been in Arizona for 350 years, or that you are a US citizen who was naturalized more recently, or that you are legally in the US, or that you are a Sephardic Jew, or Pakistani or Indian or an Arab or an Original American. It doesn't matter to the the police whether you are part of the vast Mestizo race that has lived in North America from Vancouver to Panama City for 5 centuries. They will think they can approach you and ask you for proof that you are legally waiting for the bus.

Of course, the chances, if you are illegally in the US from China, Canada, England, Ireland, Germany or Sweden, that you will be asked to show your papers is incredibly small.

The key salient factor in having conversations with the police and being asked to show your papers is skin tone. Please mark you travel guide accordingly.