Arizona Governor Brewer signed into law yesterday a measure designed to enforce immigration laws in that state. Many across the country are up in arms about this law since it will supposedly result in racial profiling. Actually, that is nonsense. Racial profiling takes place when one group is unfairly singled out for enforcement efforts. In the classic example, police stop blacks driving through a neighborhood at night based solely on their race when they do not stop whites. this is racial profiling. On the other hand, it is not racial profiling to stop someone who is breaking into a house no matter what the race of the perpetrator. If the people stopped in the middle of committing a crime are predominantly of one race, that is still not racial profiling.
The Arizona law expressly requires that the police must have reasonable cause to believe that anyone whose identity they check is an illegal alien. Now obviously, in Arizona, those about whom there is reasonable cause will most likely be Hispanic. that is no surprise since the illegals in that area come from Mexico for the most part. If the police enforce this law by randomly stopping all Hispanics, it will be racial profiling. On the other hand, even if 97% of all of those stopped are Hispanic, it will not prove racial profiling. The issue is how the law is enforced, not the law itself.
Maybe it is time for some of the more breathless commentators to stop fomenting racial divisions. Thus far, there is nothing wrong with the law.
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