ACLU Files Lawsuit Against Arizona SB 1070

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-05-17 14:53:00 UTC
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It was just a matter of time: the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a class action lawsuit challenging Arizona SB 1070.

In conjunction with an array of civil rights groups, including the NAACP, MALDEF, and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the suit alleges that the law violates the First Amendment, invites racial profiling, and is at odds with federal immigration law. Omar Jadwat, a staff attorney for the ACLU Immigrant Rights' Project, states, "Arizona's law is quintessentially un-American: we are not a 'show me your papers' country, nor one that believes in subjecting people to harassment, investigation and arrest simply because others may perceive them as foreign."

Jim Shee, a 70-year-old American-born citizen of Spanish and Chinese descent, is one of the plaintiffs. Even though the law has yet to go into effect, zealous members of law enforcement have already asked to see his papers on two occasions, and he objects to being the target of racial profiling under the new law. Jesus Cuauhtémoc Villa is a student at Arizona State University from New Mexico, where proof of citizenship is not necessary to get a driver's license. As he doesn't have a passport, his can only prove citizenship with his birth certificate, which he is afraid to carry with him all the time and risk losing. Yet if he cannot prove citizenship, the law mandates arresting and detaining him.

That's right: Both of these plaintiffs are U.S. citizens who are not willing to let SB 1070 infringe on their rights and threaten their day-to-day lives. Young and old, they reject turning America into a police state where racial profiling is impossible to avoid under law.

Ben Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP and one of our Changemakers, commented, "African-Americans know all too well the insidious effects of racial profiling. The government should be preventing police from investigating and detaining people based on color and accent, not mandating it."

Photo credit: Fibonacci Blue

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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