My father, a federal employee with a top secret clearance, used to carry a copy of his birth certificate when he went into Baja California from our home in San Diego. Many times when he tried to reenter the U.S. he was stopped by the Border Patrol. He had thick black hair and naturally dark skin, and the Patrol thought he was a Mexican trying to sneak back into the country by claiming that the black-haired, blue-eyed, light-skinned woman with him was his wife. Today, if my father chose to drive into Arizona or walk on the streets of any of its cities, he probably would be stopped and asked to provide identification. Naturally, he wouldn’t be carrying a U.S-issued visa or Mexican-issued passport, since he was an American citizen. He probably wouldn’t even be carrying his birth certificate, since he would have assumed there was no need to carry it when traveling within the United States. He would probably have a Social Security card and his California-issued I D card, but both of those could easily have been forged. He would probably be released after a few minutes by the local police officer, perhaps after providing his federal identification. But he might be stopped again a few hours later by a sheriff’s deputy, a constable, or even a mall’s security guard.

Under SB1070, signed into law on April 22 by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, anyone can be stopped and searched by any officer for any reason and required to produce documentation that he or she is in the United States legally. The law also allows any citizen to file suit against any law enforcement agency if the citizen believes the state law isn’t being followed. Pushed by a fearful citizenry and a politically opportunistic Republican party, the bill takes effect in August. Forget the constitutional concepts of “due process” and “probable cause.” Under this new law, persons are presumed guilty until they produce identification proving they are innocent. And disregard the constitutional mandate that immigration is the responsibility of the federal, not the state, government. Arizona saw that about a half-million persons, mostly Hispanic, were in their state illegally. They saw that the federal government wasn’t effective at sealing the southern border, even after 9/11. They saw that President Bush had tried to reform immigration policies, only to back down when he faced a divided Republican party. They saw that President Obama has tried to assure the safety of Americans but a squabbling Congress has rendered any reform inert. And they realized that for many years, adequate funds were not put into the budget of the Border Patrol. They also saw a significant increase in crime, including drug trafficking, kidnapping, and murder by illegal immigrants. They saw thousands of immigrants living in squalor, dozens in the same room, forced to work at starvation wages to pay back the gangs that brought them north. Anglo and Hispanic residents had become afraid of living in their own houses because of the gangs. They saw myriad problems caused by illegal immigrants who came north and gave birth to what are known as “anchor babies,” so the children would become U.S. citizens and the parents, still in the country illegally, could not be deported. They felt that undocumented workers were somehow “stealing” their taxes by getting food stamps, welfare, and aid for families with dependent children. Although there is increased crime because of the presence of persons from Mexico and Central America who are in the country illegally, most undocumented workers are law-abiding residents. They don’t go to the ER and get “free” medical help or scam the system by claiming welfare payments, since most believe that just registering for this help could lead to their identification as illegal residents and subsequent deportation. But they do want their children to be in school, get an education, perhaps become American citizens.

The Hispanic immigrants, with their gangs, are no different from those of any other culture who developed gangs and societies that were originally designed to help and protect them from exploitation, but did so using fear and criminal activity. But, like most Hispanics, most other cultural minorities were and still are composed of law-abiding citizens who want to live in peace. Americans have a long history of hatred for newly arrived immigrants who later become assimilated, and continue the hatred against the next culture to try to assimilate into American society. There is another part of American history that is overlooked by the masses. When the Native Americans first greeted Columbus, it would be more than a century until the first English-speaking settlers arrived. The French owned a large part of what is now the Midwest. Mexicans and Native Americans civilized much of the Southwest, including Arizona, long before Anglos moved west in what they believed was their “manifest destiny,” which would lead to what would centuries later be called “ethnic cleansing” if it occurred anywhere but in the United States. The day Gov. Brewer signed the bill, massive protests began. Protesters saw this new law—essentially racial profiling since fair-skinned blondes were unlikely to be stopped—as a violation of everyone’s constitutional rights, a desperate attempt to control a problem that had become magnified by media-savvy politicians and the compliant news media. At a rally in Phoenix, Mayor Phil Gordon spoke against the law, which was roundly condemned by numerous Hispanic celebrities including Grammy-winning Colombian singer Shakira. “I came here to offer support and defend human rights,” said Shakira, who opposes the law “because it is a violation of human and civil rights and goes against human dignity.” President Obama said the law undermined “basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.” Most law enforcement officers don’t want to expend their resources to enforce what they believe is an illegal and unwieldy law. Chief Robert Davis of San Jose, Calif., president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, points out that “immigration enforcement by local police would likely negatively affect and undermine the level of trust and cooperation between local police and immigrant communities.” The Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police said the law “will negatively affect the ability of law enforcement agencies across the state to fulfill their many responsibilities in a timely manner” and argued that although the police chiefs recognized that immigration was a problem in Arizona, “it is an issue most appropriately addressed at the federal level.” Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County (Tucson is the closest major city to the border) not only said he wouldn’t enforce the law, which demands compliance of every police official, but filed suit against the state in federal court. The law, said Sheriff Dupnik, is “disgusting,” “unnecessary,” and “racist.” If fully enforced, it will likely cause significant overcrowding in jails and force local government and the state to spend millions to house persons whose only “crime” is to live in the United States. More than two dozen major national organizations have said they will not hold conventions in Arizona, hoping an economic boycott will force the state to reconsider the law. Economic boycotts had led Arizona to declare Martin Luther King Jr. Day a state holiday only after the NFL had pulled the Super Bowl from Arizona in 1993 because the state refused to follow the rest of the country in recognizing Dr. King. Major league baseball is deciding whether to pull next year’s all-star game from Phoenix. About one-fourth of all major league players are Hispanic; several teams conduct about two months of spring training in Arizona; about a dozen teams in the Arizona Rookie League each have at least five Hispanic players, all with legal status to work in the U.S. University of Arizona President Robert Shelton told students and employees at his university that the families of several out-of-state honor students who accepted admission to UA “have told us that they are changing their plans and will be sending their children to universities in other states.” He also said that UA students and employees, all of them citizens or holding legal visas, fear they “may now be subject to unwarranted detainment by police” although they “are from families that have been residents of Arizona for generations.” Even the national Republican party may have been blindsided by the swift passage of the law and the national outrage. Under President Bush the Republicans tried to increase the number of Hispanic voters in the party, and they are now faced with the reality that there could be a massive retaliation. Phoenix was one of the final three cities, along with Tampa and Salt Lake City, under consideration for the 2012 Republican National Convention. Suddenly the Republican party chose Tampa. Overlooked by a lot of Arizonans is the fact that corporations and small businesses are all too willing to violate federal law by hiring undocumented workers, paying them significantly less than they pay American citizens, giving them no benefits, paying no Social Security or unemployment taxes, and allowing them to live in poverty. Even when there is a relatively rare raid on their premises, usually the owner or corporation pays almost no penalty or one that is a miniscule part of its profits. American citizens who wrongly complain about immigrants taking their jobs are also a part of the problem, since they don’t seem to have a problem with outsourcing or low factory pay as long as it allows them to buy cheaper goods. My father was subjected to bigotry and racism, as was my mother, but he was spared the viciousness of a law that could only be seen as not much different from laws and “police practices” in the deep south in the 1950s. The South learned; Arizona hasn’t. Dr. Brasch’s current book is Sex and the Single Beer Can (3rd ed.), a humorous and sarcastic look at the media and American culture. Rosemary Brasch assisted on this column.