Argumentative Essay On Arizona

The American Dream! The vision that gets sold that a life in the US is a wonderful dream! For many undeveloped countries around the world, the United States is seen as the land of the opportunity. The land where hard work will be rewarded and all goals can be achieved. However the real United States is not as wonderful as it seems for an immigrant, specially an illegal immigrant. It is no doubt minorities in the United States are discriminated and somehow targeted. Lets take for example the popular Arizona Senate Bill 1070, better known as SB 1070. The law became so controversial and popular at the same time, multiple states adopted its own version of it. The goal? “Make neighborhoods safe” by deporting all illegal immigrants (Eagly). Mass

immigrants deportation is not something new to Hispanics, specially from Mexican ancestry. My great-grandparents were participants of the “Mexican Repatriation” during the Great Depression, under President Hoover and President Roosevelt. This was the forced removal of approximately one million people-US citizens as well as non citizens from Mexican ancestry (Johnson). They were already living in the United States and many of their kids were US Citizens. As my grandfather one time recalled, he and his older siblings arrived home one day from school and their mother and younger sister were nowhere to be found. My great-grandfather was working at the time, so the children were locked out of their two bedroom apartment for hours. Once my great-grandfather arrived home, he feared the worst; something horrifying had happened to his wife and child. It took over three months for my grandfather to know what had happened to his wife. My great-grandmother, along with her US Citizen daughter were repatriated to a Mexican State where she was not familiar with. It took my great-grandmother two months to put money together for her fair to go back to their town of origin. While this happened about 80 years ago, these types of removals are still a reality and families are still getting separated
Arizona has been in the spotlight due to multiple practices against illegal immigration.

It varies from lawsuits against the Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling, to Arizona laws against the Hispanic Community. Sheriff Apraio has been facing the lawsuit since 2007 and the federal judges have found the sheriff agency to have racially profiled Hispanics during patrol operations (Holstege). This creates a hostile environment towards law enforcement in general among the Hispanic community, not only the Sheriff Office. The law basically allows law enforcement officers to request documentation or proof of legal status of anyone who they have “reasonable doubt they are illegally in this country.” However, how can you have “reasonable doubt” that someone is illegal on this country? Well, their appearance, their language? South Phoenix, a neighborhood mostly composed by Hispanics from Mexican ancestry, has experienced the targeting of this law due to their appearance. Almost every Hispanic resident of South Phoenix neighborhood feared the repercussion of the law. Even US citizens and legal US residents were terrified of law enforcement officers due to their appearance. They stopped coming out of their houses, unless it was extremely necessary, just to avoid contact with law enforcement (Szkupinski). How can you trust the people that are supposed to protect you, if they are the ones terrorizing your neighborhood? How can you report a real crime, if you do you can

end up being separated from your family? Is this really keeping our neighborhood safe? People feared the color of their skin would make them target for these type of “reasonable doubt” provision and would be pursued by police. Many have argued on how this part of the law would be implemented. The US Supreme Court allowed the implementation of the provision that allows police officers to question the immigration status of an individual stopped, detained, or arrested if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally; however needs to be done with caution to avoid “racial profiling”. Can we be sure this will be done? How can you not profile an outsider based on their look? Language? I understand Arizona is trying to “fix the broker immigration policies” but this is not the way. This is a job for the federal government! After all, who carries their birth certificate with them at all times? Arizona, in order to prove your point you don't need to terrorize a whole community. After all, they're still your citizens!