After Years of Discriminatory Immigration Enforcement, SB 1070 Has Been Rendered Virtually Unenforceable
September 19, 2016
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, the Arizona Attorney General issued an opinion severely limiting the remaining enforcement provisions of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, SB 1070. Per the opinion, law enforcement officers can no longer use race or ethnicity to develop reasonable suspicion of an individual’s immigration status in order to stop and detain said individual. In response to the opinion issued by the Arizona Attorney General, LULAC National President Roger C. Rocha, Jr. issued the following statement:
“Arizona’s SB 1070 did nothing to protect the people of Arizona, but rather made racial profiling legal by instructing law enforcement to use race in their everyday encounters. By allowing law enforcement to target individuals based on their race or ethnicity, the law pitted neighbor against neighbor and went after the immigrant community through fear and intimidation. Over the last six years, the U.S. Supreme Court and most recently, the Arizona Attorney General through his recent opinion, have stripped this hate-filled anti-immigration law of virtually all of its enforcement provisions. In the end, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the bill was unconstitutional, and the Arizona Attorney General through his opinion set significant limitations on any police conduct under SB 1070.
"It is gratifying that in the end, the rights of the Latino community in this country have been recognized. LULAC will continue to work with its partners to monitor and ensure that Arizona’s law enforcement officers abide by the Arizona Attorney General’s opinion. Only through such efforts, will the immigrant community enjoy the same civil rights as other Americans.”
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 1,000 councils around the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit www.LULAC.org.