Last-minute changes to S1070 broaden enforcement power
While supporters of Arizona’s immigration law have said repeatedly that it will allow police officers to check the immigration status of people during the enforcement of other crimes, the law actually gives police much broader enforcement power, according to legal experts and representatives of the law enforcement community.
S1070, as passed, gave local police the authority to run a federal immigration check after basic public safety contacts in situations where no offense has been committed, according to Lyle Mann, director of the Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board, the group that’s been tasked to create guidelines for the law’s street-level application.
“Police officers do this every day. It’s called a ‘Terry Stop,’ after the Terry v. Ohio case,” he said. “Let’s say there are some guys playing basketball in a park. The officer walks up and says, ‘Hey guys, how’s it going.’ That’s lawful contact. It’s a voluntary stop.”
But one of several last-minute changes to the law on April 29 may have established an even broader set of circumstances that would be considered a “lawful stop, detainment or arrest.”
The revision to the law was included in a bill, H2162, which was passed by the Legislature on April 29, the final day of this year’s legislative session, and then signed by Gov. Jan Brewer on April 30.
The bill made a number of revisions to the immigration law. It lowered the fines for violating the law, added a requirement that only officers authorized by the federal government can make the final immigration status determination of people encountered, and eliminated the use of race as a qualifying factor to determine “reasonable suspicion” that a person may be in the country illegally.
But H2162 also changed the language of the new immigration law so that police officers will be authorized to use local ordinances, such as property or rental code violations, to initiate immigration checks.
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Phoenix, said letting police officers knock on a person’s door and run an immigration check because their lawn is overgrown or they have a car parked on their lawn will increase the likelihood that particular groups of people, such as the poor, are targeted.
“This is so overreaching,” Sinema said. “Now, someone can just call the police on their neighbor for a barking dog, or an overgrown lawn, and the police can show up and check their immigration status.”
Sen. Russell Pearce, a Republican from Mesa, and the main sponsor of S1070, the original immigration bill, said the changes to the law only clarify the powers police would already have had with the new law.
Republican lawmakers such as Pearce, Sen. Frank Antenori and Sen. Ron Gould have told the national media that the immigration law will be enforced by local police only during the course of investigating other crimes and such things as traffic stops.
But an e-mail that Pearce accidentally sent to a Tucson resident, and which was then passed to lawmakers and media, indicates that the slight change was intended to clarify that police would be able to use violations of property codes, such as cars on blocks in the yard, or rental codes, such as too many occupants of a rental unit, to initiate contact.
The e-mail appears to have been sent from Kris Kobach, a former aide to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in the Department of Justice, and who is running as a Republican for secretary of state in Kansas.
Both Pearce and Kobach said they would not comment on the validity of the e-mail, but neither denied its legitimacy.
The changes that were outlined in the e-mail were adopted as an amendment to H2162 minutes before the legislative conference committee agreed to its final version. The bill received a final vote hours later, and was signed by the governor on April 30.
10 Responses to “Last-minute changes to S1070 broaden enforcement power”
April 30th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
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April 30th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
[...] Arizona Capitol Times » Blog Archive » Last-minute changes to S1070 broaden enforcement power azcapitoltimes.com/blog/2010/04/30/last-minute-changes-to-s1070-broaden-enforcement-power – view page – cached * Home > Latest News, illegal immigration, legislature > Last-minute changes to S1070 broaden enforcement power Tweets about this link Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['robfromaz'] = {“location”:”",”photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/844587467/UofA_normal.jpg”,”name”:”RobfromAZ”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/robfromaz”,”nick”:”robfromaz”,”description”:”",”influence”:”"}; robfromaz: “RT @azcapitoltimes Last-minute changes to S1070 broaden enforcement power: http://bit.ly/apDkSN #immigration #azimmigration Arizona ” 56 minutes ago view tweet retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['brokdikdog'] = {“location”:”",”photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/793024361/android-open-248x300_normal.jpg”,”name”:”julian lemieux”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/brokdikdog”,”nick”:”brokdikdog”,”description”:”",”influence”:”"}; brokdikdog: “RT @azcapitoltimes: Last-minute changes to S1070 broaden enforcement power: http://bit.ly/apDkSN #immigration #azimmigration ” 57 minutes ago view tweet retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['nateog'] = {“location”:”âA”,”photo”:”http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/850950132/Picture_1_normal.png”,”name”:”nathanolivarez”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/nateog”,”nick”:”nateog”,”description”:”@LATimes business reporter. I tweet on LA news, biz, tech, politics, comic books, video games, film, art, music cars & sports. Opinions here are my own.”,”influence”:”Highly Influential”}; nateogHighly Influential: “Last-minute changes to #SB1070 broaden enforcement power http://bit.ly/apDkSN RT @azcapitoltimes + @brian_white727 ” 2 hours ago view tweet retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['mjuradokelly'] = {“location”:”Mesa, Arizona”,”photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/521757325/me_at_tempe_town_lake_resized_normal.jpg”,”name”:”Monica Kelly”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/mjuradokelly”,”nick”:”mjuradokelly”,”description”:”Social worker, grad student, crafter, music lover”,”influence”:”"}; mjuradokelly: “RT @azcapitoltimes: Last-minute changes to S1070 broaden enforcement power: http://bit.ly/apDkSN #immigration #azimmigration ” 2 hours ago view tweet retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['brian_white727'] = {“location”:”ÃT: 32.23416,-110.96064″,”photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/803250533/brian_normal.jpg”,”name”:”Brian”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/brian_white727″,”nick”:”brian_white727″,”description”:”All up in your tweets.”,”influence”:”"}; brian_white727: “RT @azcapitoltimes Last-minute changes to #SB1070 broaden enforcement power: http://bit.ly/apDkSN ” 2 hours ago view tweet retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['deervalleyed'] = {“location”:”Phoenix, Arizona”,”photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/711033717/deervalleyed_normal.JPG”,”name”:”DeerValleyEd”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/deervalleyed”,”nick”:”deervalleyed”,”description”:”",”influence”:”"}; deervalleyed: “RT @azcapitoltimes: Last-minute changes to S1070 broaden enforcement power: http://bit.ly/apDkSN #immigration #azimmigration ” 2 hours ago view tweet retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['azcapitoltimes'] = {“location”:”Phoenix, Arizona”,”photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/853458551/azcaptimeslogo_normal.png”,”name”:”AZ Capitol Times”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/azcapitoltimes”,”nick”:”azcapitoltimes”,”description”:”The Arizona Capitol Times is an award-winning newspaper that covers state government, politics and legislative news for the Capitol community.”,”influence”:”"}; azcapitoltimes: “Last-minute changes to S1070 broaden enforcement power: http://bit.ly/apDkSN #immigration #azimmigration ” 2 hours ago view tweet retweet Filter tweets [...]
May 1st, 2010 at 12:27 am
Gov. Jan Brewer had the guts to do what Wash. wouldn’t do.Jan, i watched you on channel 3 this morning and you was wonderful….We must protect our State……..( Ariz )…. Gov. Brewer thank you….This is America, not Mexico..
May 1st, 2010 at 1:01 pm
[...] of “any other law or ordinance” doesn’t mean a further expansion of the law. See Arizona Capitol Times »Last-minute changes. One legislator believes so. Rep. Krysten Sinema, a Phoenix Democrat, believes it overreaches, [...]
May 1st, 2010 at 7:32 pm
“White people. This is an Apartheid law. And missing from this discussion is the context of how White people (Europeans) came to this land. Since 1492, European-descent people have arrogantly invaded this continent, committing genocide, rape, slavery, land theft, and resource plundering. All the while, these European pirates/squatters screamed at Native Peoples that we were: 1) Unsaved pagan savages, 2) the wrong race, 3) without rights to our humanity, freedom, and collective land ownership. I have yet to see one bonafide “Pilgrim Passport” from Native Americans. That’s because White people have violated the sovereignty of every single First Nation Government in this Western Hemisphere. European-descent people are The Ultimate Illegal Aliens. They are in no moral position to preach about “assimilation” and “legality” which they themselves have rejected for the last 500 years. Boycott Arizona”.by Migel A
May 2nd, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Excuse me, but what part of “ILLEGAL immigrants” do people not get? This isn’t throwing someone out because they LOOK “foreign”. This is throwing people out because they ARE foreign. Heck, I hope they do it in NYC, too. We’ve got tons of people sucking us dry because they have no fear of deportation.
May 3rd, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Look I have read the law and the best thing is now you can go after the employer. That is the ONLY way you will curb this problem and if people think just arresting illegals will solve it there naive. Remember now you have to pay more for detention even if you just try and hand people over to ICE there will still be expenses. Go after the employers and make it hurt. Simple no demand for illegal help no illegal help will be here
May 4th, 2010 at 12:05 am
Europeans have been illegal immigrants since October 12, 1492. They invaded our continent without papers as a part of their “Christian Jihad”. They murdered 95% of Indigenous Peoples, stole 100% of our land, raped, pirated, and waged smallpox biological warfare. Europeans violated the the sovereignty of every single First Nation Government and they refused to ASSIMILATE into Indigenous cultures. European-descent people are the LAST people to preach about “legal” immigration. And they are the FIRST ones we should be referring to in any discussion on “illegal immigration”. My people’s feet never left this continent; White people’s feet are still soaking wet from their trespassing of our Atlantic Ocean Border.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:57 am
It is amazing how many people well read what you wrote about all the atrocities committed by the Europeans that they well just overlook all the heinous actions committed. As a matter of fact they probably think that that is part of the past and have forgotten about it. You ask the people about the purchase of these states that were (really stolen) from Mexico and they know nothing about it. But of course the Mexicans are the illegals. Well of course they are they crossed a river and the Europeans crossed an ocean. I am sure that some how or another it makes sense.
October 3rd, 2010 at 11:38 am
You so-called “Nican Tlaca” would do well to remember that you are not truly “indigenous”. You did not magically spring out of the soil of this continent, which you deem to be your own. No, you came from Asia. When you got here, you proceded to hunt the real indigenous inhabitants to extinction. You need only look around at the lack of mammoths, sabretooth cats and ground sloths in California. You have no business playing the victim card.