Michelle Mendez
Wichman
English 1101
19 September 2012
Arizona Law Faces Discriminatory Issues We are all victims of discrimination. It is inevitable by all who live in any society. Recently, the United States has encountered a new face of discrimination. The number of illegal immigrants has increased causing the U.S. to create ways on bringing numbers back to balance. The new Arizona law allows officials to question people to prove their legal residency if they have “probable cause” of being an illegal immigrant. Both news stations, Fox News and CNN, take completely different perspectives when discussing how the Arizona law, SB1070, revolves around discrimination. Fox News discusses many factual statements explaining how the Arizona law does not revolve around social profiling. Lyle Mann states, “law enforcement has been trained on how to implement SB1070” (“Federal Judge”). The Arizona law has been passed in major entry points for illegal immigrants in hopes of cutting down illegal activity. Besides letting the federal government, ICE, handle illegal immigration the SB1070 will allow state enforcement to do so as well. At the moment the judge, Susan Bolton, who ruled this section of the Arizona law claims that none can argue as to how the law deals with social profiling if there is no proof behind it. “We don’t know and I don’t know if anybody knows until that starts to happen”, states Mann (“Federal Judge”). The two year battle of passing the Arizona law has come to an end and will now show how efficient its implementation will prove to be. A CNN article entitled, “What’s next in Arizona immigration battle,” goes about the social profiling involved with the Arizona law by a different approach. Instead of informing readers what the Arizona law will do, it mentions the way advocates and others will go about helping the victims. Co-chair of the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, a civil and human rights group in Tucson, Isabel Garcia, opposes the Arizona law and talks about the support groups created to bring more awareness to the states immigrants. "We formed an 'I Am a Witness' hot line. We're getting so many calls now it's unbelievable," Garcia said (“What’s next”). As Judge Bolton argues that no claims of social profiling can be made until the law takes full effect, many say the opposite. The Maricopa Sherriff Joe Arpaio and his department hold a lawsuit from MALDEF which charged them with discrimination towards Latinos. The Obama administration policy only wishes to apply the Arizona law toward illegal immigrants that meet the priority criteria such as felons. “Even if Arizona police requests overwhelm ICE, the agency will not respond unless the subject meets its criteria”, said Amber Cargile (“What’s next”). It is apparent how both news stations, Fox News and CNN, are biased when it comes to discussing if the Arizona law deals with discrimination. Fox News argues how officials have been trained to avoid social profiling and how the overall effect will be beneficial towards fixing the illegal immigration problem. On the other hand, CNN mentions how officials have already
