Arizona immigration law provoked exodus Florida Punish illegal immigrant
A controversial immigration law in Arizona has likely provoked the voluntary departure of 100,000 Hispanics from the southern U.S. state, according to a study released Wednesday.
“Several months after the law was applied, it’s possible to observe a lower number of Hispanics in that area of America. We estimate there are 100,000 less Hispanics compared to the start of 2010,” said the report by the private BBVA Bancomer foundation, released at the two-day Global Forum on Migration and Development, in the Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta.
“It’s possible that this reduction is largely due to the potential application of the law,” the report said.
It was unclear where those who left Arizona had gone, but most were probably elsewhere in the United States, it added.
Arizona’s governor in July approved a law giving police broader powers to pursue illegal immigrants, but a federal judge temporarily blocked some of its more controversial provisions, including making it a crime not to carry proper papers.
About 30 per cent of Arizona’s 6.6 million people are Hispanic, according to U.S. census data. One third of them are foreign born, including the estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in the state.
Like as Arizona, Florida’s Republican attorney general on Wednesday proposed toughening the state’s immigration laws, with powers to punish illegal immigration that could go beyond a controversial Arizona law.
Bill McCollum, who is running for governor, introduced the legislation amid an increasingly charged public debate over how far states should go to control illegal immigration, traditionally a federal responsibility.
“This legislation will provide new enforcement tools for protecting our citizens and will help our state fight the ongoing problems created by illegal immigration,” McCollum said in introducing the bill.
The law instructs judges to take into account violation of immigration regulations in setting bail, or to elevate the degree of criminal charges.
It also provides for longer prison sentences for crimes committed by immigrants who are in the country illegally.
“This law is fairly balanced to protect the rights of those who are here legally and illegally,” McCollum said, calling it “a huge step for public safety.”
The legislation requires police making an arrest to determine whether the person is in the country legally, something they can now do on a voluntary basis but which normally is the province of immigration authorities.
McCollum said that under the proposed law, police could arrest some on a “reasonable suspicion” that they are illegal immigrants.
He said the law bars “unreasonable profiling,” however, which means that arrests on the basis of a person’s appearance alone would not be allowed.
The lack of papers or a driver’s license, however, might be enough to constitute a reasonable suspicion, according to McCollum.
“You are supposed to have papers to show that you are here legally and if you don’t have them, you don’t have a legal status to be here,” he said.
The proposed law also would strengthen controls on the hiring of immigrants and would require companies to use an electronic system to prove that people they hire are in the country legally.
Immigration rights groups estimate that there are some 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, most of them Hispanics living in southern states like Arizona, Texas and to a less extent Florida.
A law criminalizing illegal immigration went into effect in Arizona last month amid protests and bitter debate that drew in President Barack Obama, who promised comprehensive immigration reform.
A U.S. federal judge issued an injunction against the most controversial portions of the Arizona law last month, but the state is appealing the ruling.
Tags: arizona law, florida law, imigrant law, imigration law
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