On Monday the US Supreme Court threw out three of the four sections of Arizona’s state-level immigration policy.
Darcy Tromanhauser, Director of Nebraska Appleseed’s Immigrant Program, says the 4th section, which requires police to check the citizenship status for any person lawfully stopped, detained or arrested, is still subject to civil rights questions that are coming up through the courts.
She says Monday’s legal decision said, essentially, that one cohesive federal system is needed to handle immigration. Tromanhauser says Arizona’s immigration law violates national values and national interests. She says the country has seen the toxic social and economic effects of the Arizona and Alabama laws.
"Arizona has lost millions in spending in the state. Business leaders and universities have had trouble recruiting talent to the state. Alabama farmers are seeing crops rotting in their fields. They are not able to harvest everything. So each of these places where this law or a version of it has passed, states have begun to turn away since they see that it’s not productive policy.”
The US Supreme Court struck down the provisions requiring immigrants to carry papers on them at all times…making it a crime for illegal immigrants to work…and allowing police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants without having warrants.
For more information on Nebraska Appleseed, the website is neappleseed.org.