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Matter of Opinion

Arizona immigration law

So the Arizona governor signed the bill that allows law enforcement to ask for papers if they have "reasonable suspicion." What are the reasonable "tells" of illegal immigrants? The governor said she didn't know.

UPDATE: Arizona lawmakers modify law over profiling concerns. Now race cannot be used at all. Sounds to me like this will be practically impossible to enforce and thus will be lightly enforced. Then law enforcement will have to fend off lawsuits for not enforcing it. But how will litigants prove officers didn't act on reasonable suspicion?

UPDATE: Arizona Republic devotes entire front page to an editorial on the topic. Highly unusual. The editorial is here.

What a mess.



 



Gary Crooks
Gary Crooks joined The Spokesman-Review in 1997. He is editor of the Opinion section and a member of the Editorial Board.

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