Constitutional Basis of Arizona Immigration Law

Constitutional Basis of Arizona Immigration Law

Introduction:

Arizona Immigration Law, often referred to as Arizona SB1070, has been receiving national as well as international attention since the time it was passed in 2010. The law is the most strict anti- illegal immigration law ever, and thus quickly became the centre of attention the world over.

According to the law, the US federal law has made it mandatory for all the individuals over fourteen years of age, who live in United States for over thirty days, to get themselves registered with the US government. The foreigners are also supposed to carry these registration documents along with them all the time. In addition to this, Arizona Act states that it is illegal for any individual with above mentioned conditions to remain in US with having these documents and any individual found without documents in his possession, who is suspected if illegal immigration can be subjected to lawful stop, detention or even arrest by the law enforcement officers (Nowicki, 2010).

The pros and cons of Arizona Immigration Law:

According to some recent statistics, around 22.7 million illegal immigrants are residing in America these says, out of which 22.2 million are said to be of Hispanic origin. A number of steps have been taken to reduce the number of illegal immigrations, but none of them has been successful, thus leading to passage of Arizona Immigration act (O' Leary, 2010). There had been stern criticism and condemnation regarding the bill even before it was passed, mainly because of its severe nature. It has received appreciation from a number of people as we. The critics believing that it will form the basis of encouraging racial proliferation and the supporters saying that the law disallows immigration investigation only on the basis of race.

Various arguments have been presented in favor and against the law, some of which are as follows:

Supportive arguments:

The law would ensure the state's security, and would be only against illegal immigrants, possible criminals and terrorists. It also gives the state right to terminate or suspend any business that seems suspicious. The best supportive point in favor of Arizona's Immigration Law is the fact that twenty two other states are considering the same laws as Arizona, which proves the strong positive nature of the law. The illegal immigrants have been creating havoc in US, and their number is on a continuous rise. According to estimates, over 25% of the federal prison population is comprised of illegal foreigners. Moreover, 25% of the burglaries, 12% crimes and 34% thefts are committed by the illegal immigrants (Archibold, 2010).

Some illegal immigrants have been convicted for serious crimes as well, including kidnapping, rape and murder, while other found involved in repeating the same crimes over and over again. Violating driver's license is one of the crimes often repeated by the illegal immigrants (Schwartz and Archibold, 2010).

The supporters of Arizona's Immigration Act believe that having involved in such acts, that contribute in deteriorating the law and order situation, these illegal immigrants have to ...