ICIRR Blasts Supreme Court Ruling for Upholding Racial Profiling Provision in Arizona SB 1070

ICIRR Blasts Supreme Court Ruling for Upholding Racial Profiling Provision in Arizona SB 1070

 Non-Partisan New Americans Democracy Project Will Mobilize Voters to Win Federal Fix of Immigration System

This morning, the US Supreme Court unanimously let stand the provision of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, SB 1070, requiring police to check the immigration status of any individuals they stop when there exists “reasonable suspicion” that they are undocumented.  The court also ruled 5-3 to block three other provisions of the law.  The following is the statement of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).  

ICIRR is deeply disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision letting stand the document check provision on SB 1070.  This decision will encourage police across the country to engage in racial profiling as they target Latinos and other minorities for stops and arrests.  SB 1070 has already driven a deep wedge among Arizonans, and emboldened other states to pass copycat legislation that is terrorizing immigrant families in those states, most notoriously Alabama but also including our neighbors in Indiana.  Rather than uphold the need for a single, federal system of immigration law enforcement, the Supreme Court has now opened the floodgates for more states and communities to enact measures that will drive away immigrants and their families, in the process destroying communities and wreaking further economic devastation.

The Supreme Court decision also highlights the need for the federal government to once and for all fix our broken immigration system.  But fixing our immigration system will not happen unless immigrant families make our voices heard.  Those immigrant family members who are citizens must register to vote and turn out at the polls. 

That is why today ICIRR is launching this year’s edition of our nonpartisan New Americans Democracy Project, which will register 26,000 new immigrant citizen to vote and turn out 159,885 immigrant voters to the polls.  NADP will work in immigrant neighborhoods throughout the Chicago area including among Latino, Asian, Arab, Polish and other diverse communities. ICIRR and our partner organizations are training and supervising 20 NADP fellows who will work six days a week door knocking, recruiting volunteers, and talking to immigrants about the importance of voting.

Thanks in large part to our previous voter registration and mobilization efforts in Illinois, we have won numerous victories that have offered nationally-recognized leadership in integrating immigrants and their families into our community.  In the past year and a half we have seen our state government enact the Illinois DREAM Act to aid immigrant students, preserve eligibility for immigrant children in the AllKids program, and reject the dragnet “Secure Communities” enforcement program.  We have also seen Cook County reject immigration detainers and the City of Chicago create an Office of New Americans and commit to naturalize 100,000 new citizens.  Illinois clearly is not Arizona or Alabama. 

Illinois has shown time and again that only when immigrant voters show our strength will our lawmakers take seriously the need for wiser policies, such as those we have won in Illinois, which welcome immigrants and bring our communities together—rather than the divisive and destructive policies that the Supreme Court has just upheld.  The Obama Administration’s announcement on June 15 halting deportations for many immigrant youths is a welcome first step.  Still, our federal leaders must recognize that destroying families is wrong, and that immigrants who pose no threat to our nation should be able to remain with their families and communities.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is a statewide coalition of more than 130 organizations dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of our diverse society. For more information, visit www.icirr.org.