SB 1070 Fuels Latino Exodus From Arizona

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-06-09 14:47:00 UTC
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If Arizona's real motive in passing SB 1070 was to drive Latino residents out of the state leaving a whiter picture (just like repainting a mural), it looks like that wish is coming true: USA Today reports that Latinos worried about racial profiling are leaving the state in droves before the law goes into effect.

Evidence for this trend has been gathered from schools, businesses, and individual reports. The predominantly Latino Balsz Elementary School District, for example, lost 70 students within a month of the bill's passage, 10 times the number of students who were pulled out of school this time last year. District Superintendent Jeffrey Smith reveals that parents shared with him the fact that the harsh new "papers please" law is their reason for leaving in search of a friendlier state.

And it's not just undocumented immigrants who feel driven from their homes by the new law. Legal residents of a caramel hue also feel unsafe. Who can blame them? Even police officers say that the law is racist. And with an American-born Latino man in Chicago wrongfully detained by federal immigration authorities and threatened with deportation for "looking Mexican" just last month, despite providing proof of citizenship, concern about the consequences of racial profiling by Arizona law enforcement is understandable.

It's not like United States citizens don't get wrongfully detained and deported under just our regular old screwed up federal immigration system. Who needs SB 1070 added to the mix?

Photo credit: MPD01605

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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