In recent weeks, local police have been circulating predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in Alabama, asking those standing on the street to go inside their homes or face arrest — all because the state passed a law requiring police to be immigration agents.
During the past decade, as international terrorism became a subject of intense concern, Arab Americans and South Asian Americans have been spied upon, stopped, questioned and subjected to intensified inspection based on their racial characteristics rather than any evidence of wrongdoing.
And for more than a century, black men and women traveling through predominantly white neighborhoods have been questioned for no reason — simply because police officers felt they didn’t belong there.
Before there was even a name for it, racial profiling has been engrained in our country’s law enforcement practices. But racial profiling not only goes against our Constitution and our country’s value for equality -- it also hinders law enforcement officials from doing an effective job.
For years, many of our political leaders have vowed to put an end to racial profiling. Attorney General Eric Holder has made it clear that ending the practice of racial profiling is a "priority" for the Obama administration. And certain members of Congress have echoed that sentiment, by introducing S. 1670, the End Racial Profiling Act of 2011 (ERPA), in the U.S. Senate on Oct. 6. The law also will be reintroduced in the House, and should receive bipartisan support.
The law would take concrete steps toward eliminating the practice of making a group of people subject to heightened scrutiny based on race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. ERPA is a laudable starting point, not a complete remedy, because the operational lines between legitimate practices and illegal profiling have become dangerously blurred at our borders, in our airports, and on our streets and freeways. It will take sustained vigilance to make these boundaries meaningful and to ensure that anyone violating them faces consequences.
Now is the time for us to come together and end this unlawful practice. Racial profiling is ineffective, erodes public trust in law enforcement and violates the Constitution. It has no place in American life.
In the coming days, through a blog series on “The Three Faces of Racial Profiling,” it will become evident the damage that racial profiling has done to many Americans. At the core, racial profiling is about discrimination, not about keeping our communities or our country safe.
Alabama Immigration Law Upheld - NYTimes.com
Parts of Alabama immigration law blocked by federal appeals court ...
Alabama to enforce strict immigration laws - CBS News
Is Alabama immigration law creating a 'humanitarian crisis ...
Alabama immigration law prompts fear, some departures - Los ...
Alabama Immigration Law Causes Hispanics to Leave Schools ...
How foolish for a lawyer who wants to be taken seriously, to start out with such an absurd statement.
What does race have to do with it again?
It is a tool, not the only means of enforcement.
Look at how we physically search old ladies and kids in the search for terrorists. I'll give you a hint. they are not white, they are not over 50, and they are not female. Why would you ever waste your time looking away from those that are the 99.99% so you can fell good by focusing on the 0.01%.
Do you really think the ACLU is for all of America, or an extrmely small number of them?
Truth be told America like most countries is a mixture of huge numbers of minorities based on age, rage, nationality, occupation, place of birth, place of residence, marital or financial status etc. Any time you start singling out any group of people for harrassment based on appearance alone rather than probable cause - everybodies rights get slightly diminished. I'm a white guy now 65 - but back in my late teens early 20's I was a night owl and regularly stopped by police because I belonged to a male demographic generally responsible for most crime. Seemed wrong then - and doing it to someone else without cause doesn't make it any more right today.
I was at Sequoia National Park last week, and it was easy to find foreigners. A racial profiler would have missed them all.
Now for the "Stop" itself - the need for an immigration check (as determined above) was subsequent to any other stop that a LE officer might make. If you get pulled over for a broken tail light, or having expired tags - they might decide to make a check if say, you didn't have a drivers license and didn't speak english.
Given that we trust police officers with weapons and the ability to dispense lethal force based solely on their judgement of a given situation, I think I can trust them to handle this check is a responsible manner.
In the Zone we have a simple test to detect racists. Anyone who can't figure out a way to enforce our immigration law without profiling tests positive.