On behalf of the ILWU membership, we are filing an amicus brief to oppose Arizona’s dangerous new immigration law. An amicus brief is a document that is filed in court by someone who is not directly related to the case but has an interest in the matter that it under consideration by the court.
Like most people of good will and conscience, the ILWU is outraged at the racial profiling and discriminatory targeting of minority and immigrant groups sanctioned by Arizona Senate Bill 1070. Still, the ILWU’s opposition to the bill goes deeper than that. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 is now the most stringent law on immigration in the nation. Supporters of the bill say that it is designed to address the issue of illegal immigration. But, we know, as an organization with a history of periodic government restraints on civil rights, that the bill goes much farther than that.
In the 1940’s, immigration law was used to prosecute President Harry Bridges, the founder of this great organization, based on his alleged affiliation with the Communist Party. Eventually, the government’s use of deportation law to prosecute President Bridges based on a theory of guilt by association was found to violate the free speech and free association rights that are protected by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Before it was all said and done, however, thousands of citizens and immigrants had been accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers, leading to the loss of employment, destruction of careers, and even imprisonment. The reckless and unsubstantiated government attacks on innocent individuals was made possible by federal immigration laws, which were later declared unconstitutional.
Do not confuse what is at issue here. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 is not merely a bill that takes aim at illegal immigration. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 impacts us all, citizens and immigrants alike, by making it a state crime not to carry proof of citizenship or immigration status and requiring police to ask about a person’s status if there is any doubt.
And, how do the authorities determine whether there is any doubt about your status? The answer is racial profiling. That’s right, since one of the few ways to develop a suspicion that someone is in the country unlawfully is based on appearance, the bill invites authorities to determine whether a person is considered likely to be an illegal immigrant based on particular racial or ethnic characteristics or, more simply, the color of one’s skin. This is far worse than the guilt by association that almost got President Bridges deported over half a century ago. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 invites law enforcement to use racial and ethnic characteristics to guess at the undocumented status of any given person.
Can you imagine walking down a street and having a police officer pick you out of the crowd based solely on the color of your skin and ask you for documentation of citizenship? You don’t carry a passport or a birth certificate with you because you were born and raised in the United States. You have a driver’s license but that’s not good enough. The police arrest you for failure to carry proof of citizenship.
Now imagine that the local authorities that have been empowered by Arizona Senate Bill 1070 already have their own prejudice against one race or another and have just been authorized to use skin color as a way to determine whether they demand that an individual prove his or her citizenship. What stops these local authorities from using the law to carry out reckless and unsubstantiated attacks on law abiding individuals just because their skin isn’t light enough? The answer is that nothing can protect people, citizens and immigrants alike, from the discrimination and abuse of power that Arizona SB 1070 invites.
In its Amicus Brief in opposition to Arizona Senate Bill 1070, the ILWU will argue that, in addition to the evils of racial profiling, the bill expands general police powers to unconstitutionally allow for routine, identification checks on all individuals, including those outside the targeted group. The process of distinguishing suspect people from everyone else requires police authorities to proactively scrutinize and when they so choose make anyone produce their identity papers.
History teaches that when a minority group is subject to such broad police power the entire population falls under similar police surveillance.
Think about it.
What would happen if you were on a picket line and the authorities asked everyone for identity papers; having none, authorities could arrest you not for picketing but for your failure to carry identity papers. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 changes the role of local police and their relationship to the general population in our country by legalizing the use of color of skin to determine whether someone’s immigration status is in doubt and by giving local police unlimited authority to perform reckless and unsubstantiated questioning of law abiding individuals in any context.
The ILWU asks all people of good will and conscience to stand together and oppose Arizona Senate
Bill 1070. This organization and its officers have a proud history of opposing racism and government restraints on civil rights.
Maybe you have heard the story of President Bridges and Noriko “Nikki” Sawada, who was born in the United States but of Japanese ancestry, being refused a marriage license in 1958 in Nevada based on a 94-year-old statute banning interracial marriage. Instead of returning to California to get married,
President Bridges and Sawada challenged the law and got a United State District Court judge to rule in their favor, allowing them to marry in Nevada. Shortly after that, the Nevada state legislature rescinded the racist law.
Arizona Senate Bill 1070 deserves the same kind of opposition that the Nevada state law banning interracial marriage got back in the 1950’s. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 is a racist law that must be abolished.
An injury to one is an injury to all.