- People with with pending applications for extension or change of status will have an I-94 card that is expired, but while the application remains pending, they are in a period of stay authorized by the attorney general;
- Students are admitted for duration of status and their I-94 cards do not have an expiration date;
- Applicants who have applications for adjustment of status that are pending are in a period of stay authorized by the attorney general but will not have a document to prove it;
- Individuals who have conditional permanent residence based on a marriage and have filed a petition to remove the conditions but have not yet received the actual card;
- Individuals who are in removal proceedings or have cases on appeal.
Furthermore, the legal determination as to whether an individual is in lawful status is one that often requires thorough investigation or litigation, during which the person presumably could be detained under Arizona law. An officer on the street does not have the time, training or resources to make such a determination on the spot. Yet, under the new law, the police department can be sued by any private citizen if that citizen does not believe the police are enforcing the new law and he or she thinks they should.
Apart from those who are lawfully here who would inevitably be harmed by this law, the very notion that any of us can be required to produce papers at any time to prove our right to be in Arizona based on some nebulous concept of "reasonable suspicion"is an affront to individual liberties. Though the law says that race, alone, cannot form the basis for reasonable suspicion, we have yet to hear other specific factors that would combine with race to form a "reasonable suspicion." It seems that race and accent will clearly be the dominant factors in forming this determination. Unfortunately, this is likely to cause fear of and animosity towards law enforcement by immigrant communities, including U.S. citizens and documented and undocumented immigrants. Such distrust and fear will only hamper state police in investigating serious crimes which truly deserve the attention of their talent and resources.
Federal action must be taken to secure our border and fix the current irretrievably broken system. This Cinco de Mayo will feature an annual celebration of the wonders and contributions of Mexican culture in America against the backdrop of Arizona Senate Bill 1070--a law which demands a wasteful use of resources, inevitable mistaken detention of U.S. citizens and others in lawful status who have committed no other offense, costly litigation against the state, and a repugnant institutionalization of racial profiling. In Arizona, Mexican Americans will suffer the brunt of this clumsily drawn attempt to address our broken system. All of us, however, should recognize this legislation as a call to demand federal action in the form of comprehensive immigration reform. Only after such a reform can we have secure borders, sensible and enforceable immigration policies, and a future of fifth days of May where we can celebrate the cultural richness and economic benefits of legal immigration without the shadow of hastily drawn patchwork laws like Arizona Senate Bill 1070.
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