In the article “Alabama's Immigration Law Prompts Alarm” a law that was recently passed on the subject of immigration is explained in depth. The law regarded as the nation’s strictest on the subject, and states that if a police officer has any suspicions of a person being an illegal immigrant, they may check the immigration status of that individual and if the individual is illegal, the police may turn them over to federal authorities. Because there is no parts to the law saying how the police officer is supposed to come about these suspicions, opponents of the law say that the law is an excuse for racial profiling on the part of the law enforcement.
In your opinion, is there any way that the law could be changed in a manner that the police can go about enforcing this law in away that there is a racial aspect involved? What is it?
This issue seems to be in the news a lot. I think that racial profiling someone in order to determine their immigration status is unnesscary. I think that if an individual is suspected of being an illegal immigrant, rather than questioning them solely because of their skin color or accent, it should be investigated if they have workng papers, or a driver's license, or any other legal document that requires one to be a citizen of the United States of America. This would be a more effective way, I think to stop illegal immigration, documents should be used to prove citizenship rather than an officer's interpretation of someone's physical looks.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laura, racial profiling to seek out illigal immigrants in unjust and avoidable. Law enforcement should investigate the suspect's background information, legal documentation such as birth cirtificates, drivers license and other proof of legal right to be in the United States. It is a much more efficient and fair way to have proof of an illigal immigrant to seek out legal documents rather than racial profiling someone based on physical appearance and other characteristics that relate to what the law enforcement consider to be an "illigal immigrant." As Scott adressed in class, this issue influences many day laborers to quite their jobs to avoid the reticule that they may face. Small businesses are losing many hard workers along with employees who plan to leave because they do not want to be prosecuted as illigal. The law must be changed in order to appropriatly seek out illigal immigrants using true evidence to avoid racal profiling and discriminating.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laura and Greg I feel that in order to stop illegal information the police should be given a way to see if the person has legal documentation by a license place number or something like that. However I do not feel that a police officer should be allowed to stop someone based of off their skin color/accent because then it is just promoting racism and saying that it is okay for police to take part in.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Greg. It is wrong to determined if someone is an immigrant based on looks. I do not see why they have to determine their immigration status when they pull them over, but I think there are things that could be done to try and remove any racism or judgement that is going on. I think that immigration status could be listed on your information on your license, so they have to look at everyone's immigration status. This would take away the need for the officer's opinion to check if you are an immigrant. A part of the law that I think is fair is that police can check, and get you in trouble if you are an illegal immigrant. Looks alone is not a reliable way to determine if someone is an immigrant, so I think this law needs to be changed to prevent serious racism. And agree with Laura, that police should check other documents that you need to be a citizen to have.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone above. Racial profiling within immigration laws is definitely a problem and should be avoided. The people that are asked to prove their citizenship in the United States must feel very discriminated against and as if they are not accepted here. I believe that if the police force is going to ask anyone to prove their immigration status, everyone should have to prove their immigration status. This shouldn't be allowed because someone that looks as if they are from Mexico will most likely be asked to prove their citizenship and they may have even been born here. But then there could be and immigrant from England that wouldn't be as likely to have to prove their immigration status to anyone. This process is very inefficient and discriminatory. The law should be made in a way that everyone is asked of their immigration status. I agree with John and his point about racism being promoted and police being asked to take part in it. There are many ways in which the police force could go about immigration laws without their being a racial aspect.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone above. Racial profiling is unnecessary and should be bypassed. The police should not be able to pull someone over just because they suspect them of being an immigrant. The law should specify that the police can verify that someone is an illegal immigrant only if they are pulled over for a reason, and can’t provide the correct papers to back up their citizenship. Racial profiling is considered discrimination, and it’s not right. Like Alexis mentioned, if one person is going to be asked to prove their immigration status, then everyone should be asked about it. Like she mentioned, a person from England is less likely to be asked about their immigration status then someone from Mexico. This law definitely needs to be changed so that racial profiling isn’t involved.
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree with my classmates above. Alabama’s law in no way condones racial profiling. The law itself states that it “requires state and local law enforcement officials to try to verify a person’s immigration status during routine traffic stops or arrests, if ‘a reasonable suspicion’ exists that the person is in the country illegally.” (Robertson) The law never says a police officer should pull over a person because they look as if they could be an illegal immigrant; the law does however clearly state that a police officer should verify the status of a person during traffic stops or arrests. Although Alabama’s bill doesn’t support racial profiling, the police officers that are supposed to carry out the law could misinterpret its meaning. The only logical answer for why racial profiling happens is if an individual police officer wanted to do so, therefore there is the same likelihood that racial profiling will happen in Alabama after the law is put into place as there was before the law existed.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/us/alabama-immigration-law-upheld.html?_r=1
I agree with my classmate above and disagree with Michaela; racial profiling to seek out illegal immigrants is unconstitutional and avoidable. People in charge of Laws, should investigate the suspect's background information before making assumptions. Like: legal documentation such as birth certificates, drivers license and other proof of legal right to be in the United States. It is a much more productive and fair way to prove identification; instead of assuming “illegal immigrant” characteristics. Small businesses are losing many hard workers along with employees who plan to leave because they do not want to be prosecuted and tagged as illegal. The law must be changed in order to appropriately seek out illegal immigrants and avoid racial profiling and major discrimination.
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ReplyDeleteI disagree with everyone and I feel that we cannot have a system to try to get rid of illegal immigrants that doesn't involve racial profiling. Sure it may be harsh and unfair to some but it is something that we cannot avoid. If we tried to have people provide some form of identification that would require citizenship for everyday activities, it would be costly for the police to enforce and it would also be counterfeited whenever possible. People already have to provide a birth certificate to obtain a driver's license and what the illegal immigrants are doing now is just driving without a license. There is no way of avoiding racial profiling.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all my classmates except Alex and Michaela. I think every citizen should have legal documents proving their citizenship. If someone is suspected of being and illegal immigrant, their background should be looked at before any judgement is made. Racial profiling is a huge problem. To eliminate it, people need to stop judging others on their looks. Therefore, having legal documents for every citizen and legal immigrant will prove that person is not illegal. Enforcing this change will reduce the amount of racial profiling because the officers would not be allowed to judge a person based on their looks; they will have to look up the background and check the papers of that person before making any assumptions.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I would like to agree with everyone else, Alex R. brings up a good point. There is not really a system that could be enforced that does not involve racial profiling. I think that racial profiling is very discriminatory and bad for our country, but it might be the only way to get rid of all of the immigrants in our country. Immigrants have found ways to get jobs and to get into our schooling systems, and they are having the benefits of our country that they do not rightfully deserve. I think that racial profiling makes legal immigrants feel unwanted and feel like they don’t belong because they are different than everyone else because people are judging them based on their race; however, they have just as much as a right to our country as we do, so I feel bad that they are being discriminated against. As of right now I do not see a better alternative that is less discriminative against legal immigrants because of racial profiling. Even though I do not want to, I somewhat agree with the law.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with racial profiling; I think it is wrong and unfair. But I agree with Michaela that if the law says that police can check the legal status of a person during a routine traffic stop, then it's right. Only if they are pulled over for something other than their race, then I agree with it. The U.S. does have a problem with immigration and we need to do something about it. In theory, I believe that this checking of legal status at traffic stops can help. But although I believe in this, I don't believe it can actually be carried out. Police will just start pulling over people if they look foreign. It would cause racial profiling and make everything worse. It seems like something that can help the country, but it has its flaws. So if they can find a way to remove the racial profiling, I will agree with this law.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michaela and a little with Matt. This law doesn't say that officers should profile anyone, it just says they can check anyone's immigration status. It shouldn't be making anyone leave their jobs because of fear of deportation unless they are illegal, in which case they shouldn't be working here anyways. Like Michaela said this law could be misinterpreted by the officer but that can happen with any law so its really an irrelevant argument against this law. I think this law will help to get rid of illegal immigrants and i don't think there is anything wrong with the law itself.
ReplyDeleteI Agree with Bobby on the subject that the authorities should not profile anyone, however, if deemed necessary, i think it would be appropriate to do so since many of the illegals from south of the border tend to have darker skin. this is usually how they are identified. that being said, if the authorities are targeting illegals in southern states such as Texas or Arizona, i think it would be a reasonable cause for identification. as for the Law's overall strictness, i feel it is right to have it because, like any other law, Illegal Immigration needs to be enforced. since other, less strict methods have failed to deal with this problem effectively, this nation could use a law similar to this one if not this one. so like Bobby said, there is nothing wrong with this law.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with almost everyone above. If we cant find a way to get rid of the illegal immigrants then its just going to become a bigger problem. I do agree that it is a little discriminating but if someone has nothing to hide they should be fine. i feel like this law could work and it will be a start to the problem of stopping illegal immigration. people need to wake up and understand this problem will get worse, and there needs to be a way to stop it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with almost everyone above and Michaela does have a good point. The law doesn't necessarily approve of racial profiling or suggest that it should be done, but like Michaela said, it is possible for the people enforcing the actual law to take it the wrong way and use racial profiling to determine the immigration status of someone. Trevor also has a very good point. It is discriminating, but it needs to be taken care of and if their immigration status is checked and they are illegal, then that's their problem and it is the police officers' job to enforce our laws. So, to change this law, like many people said above, documents should be used to prove legal immigration. Racial profiling is still bound to occur with the way the law is written, but I don't think that is the correct way to go about determining someone's immigration status.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the majority of the class I believe racial profiling is racist, unfair, and completely avoidable. There is a huge difference between just assuming someone is an illegal immigrant based on their appearance, and investigating further and getting a person's papers to prove that they are legal/illegal. I agree with Matt because I also question whether this law will be successful because officials may easily take advantage of the law and pull someone over based on how they look and then proceed to ask for legal documentation really ending up in the same situation Alabama's law was trying to stop. Illegal Immigration is a very complicated issue therefor the possible solutions to the problem will be complicated as well. I do not know of a law that would make racial profiling avoidable because I believe that no matter what law is presented racial profiling in no way will be able to be avoided.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alex and Michaela. The law does not state that a police officer may pull over a person they suspect to be illegal just because of their skin color. I do believe though that in order for many illegal immigrants to be identified and deported, there must be a degree of racial profiling involved. If police officers were not able to make assumptions about people, than it would be very hard to make an arrest, not to mention an arrest regarding illegal immigration. I feel as though arrests cannot be made based upon racial profiling, but I do feel that if an officer believes that someone is illegal, than he or she should be able to take action and help to determine if that person is an actual citizen of the United States.
ReplyDeleteI believe there is no way to avoid racial profiling. Like Alex R. said, the process of getting rid of illegal immigrants means racial profiling to try to find them. I agree with Sydney with the fact that the officer would need a reason that circulated driving violations to be able to initially pull them over.Then they would as Laura F. said, they check their legal status with their paper work. A similar situation would be like a young driver, driving between the hours they are not supposed to be. For a few of those hours, the police can not pull the driver over for looking young and must have a real driving violation reason to pull them over then catch them for being under-aged. Same thing should go for illegal immigration. It should be a secondary offense, and maybe everyone who gets pulled over should show some type of legal citizenship, to try to eliminate the racial profiling. Like John said, it would be not be good to just pick and choose who to pull over based off the way they look. You can not determine an immigrant by their looks because in reality we all look like immigrants. America is full of many different looking people and cultures so to make a profile of what an immigrant would look like would be impossible to create.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is very unfair if a police officer can stop someone just because of their skin color. In order to suspect an illegal immigrant there needs to be a reason to stop them such a speeding for example like Sydney said. Also as Laura F said once you get pulled over then the officer can check your papers. I disagree with Nate because that is racial profiling you are assuming something you don't know for sure. We are a nation full of immigrants and you just cant single out certain people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jurnee that there is no way to avoid racial profiling with this law. As many people have said it should be, at least, a secondary offense. So they can't be pulled over just for looking illegal, if they were pulled over first then checked for being illegal. That for me is even a stretch. Just because somebody looks illegal, doesn't mean they are. Even if they were pulled over for something else first and then had to be checked for legal status, that is still racial profiling. Also, the way someone looks like, the color of their skin for example, can't always say if someone is an illegal immigrant. If an illegal immigrant from England was pulled over, they wouldn't look as suspicious of being illegal as someone from Mexico would. Racial profiling is inevitable with this law, regarding any situation presented.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the many above me who have said that racial profiling is unconstitutional, and should be illegal. People should not be judged based on their looks or whatever bias a particular cop may have. But I do think it would be fair for cops to do thorough checks of legalities if someone is pulled over or arrested. If they broke a law, they should be punished. But back to the original point, it is not fair for a cop to check if someone is legal or not PURELY because of their looks, regardless of the effectiveness of that method.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone who said that this law will promote racial profiling. Jurnee is right there is no way to avoid it, however I believe that if a person is suspected to be illegal and they are stopped by the police they should be happy to present there identification. I also just want people to know that illegal immigrants can realistically get away with any crime. Their fingerprints and information are not documented; they are basically ghost people. So next time you think about this law maybe instead of thinking people may get there feelings hurt because they were asked to show their license, you could think about the family who's baby was kidnapped and killed by someone with no documents,records and NO WAY OF GETTING CAUGHT; would feel.
ReplyDeleteI think they should just make it legal for police officers to be able to ask who ever they want if they are an illegal immigrant an check their immigration status. it may be a form of racism or racial profiling but it is a law that illegal immigrants cannot be here. like people above said, this coulda cause racial profiling and some other problems, but these problems are minor compared to illegal immigration. would you rather have some very minor issues, or millions of illegal immigrants in America?
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