- Intent - states that the bill is intended to unify immigration enforcement across federal, state, and local jurisdictions and to fight illegal immigration.
- Enforcement - amends state law to provide that:
- Sanctuary cities and other inconsistent immigration enforcement within Arizona is banned.
- AZ state cops will make "a reasonable attempt" to verify citizenship status "where reasonable suspicion exists" and "when practicable" "for any lawful contact." [see definitions]
- If an illegal immigrant convicted of any state or local crime is to be turned over to ICE (Immigration, The Feds).
- Unless banned by some other law, AZ police "may securely transport" illegal aliens to Federal custody.
- State cops "may" arrest any individual if there is "probable cause" of some deportable offense without a warrant. [see definitions]
- Unless banned by federal law, state officials or agencies cannot be prohibited from handling immigration status information to determine eligibility for public services, licensing, determining residence, confirming a detainee's identity, or determining compliance with federal immigration law.
- State and local agencies that adopts a policy of immigration non-enforcement can have that policy challenged by anyone in state superior court. Punishments, at the court's discretion, may include paying for the trial costs and/or a fine of between $1,000 and $5,000 per day.
- Money collected from such fines pays for the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission (GIT EM), a state law enforcement agency.
- If an officer was just following orders in breaking this law, the punishment goes to his agency.
- Enforcement of this law must comply with federal law, especially civil rights and due process laws.
- Trespassing - amends state law to provide that:
- Illegal aliens on public property are trespassing.
- Immigration status is to be verified by the feds in these cases.
- Those sentenced for this crime must stay constantly in custody until the sentence is served.
- They are also to be fined at least $500 for a first offense and double that for subsequent offenses.
- This money goes to GIT EM and to reimburse county jails for immigration enforcement costs.
- This counts as a Class 1 Misdemeanor, except:
- It's a Class 3 Felony if they had drugs, deadly weapons, or tools of terrorism in their possession at the time.
- It's a Class 4 Felony for a second offense or if the USA has deported them in the past 60 days.
- Smuggling - A section E is added to state human smuggling laws stating that "any peace officer may" stop any vehicle if they have "reasonable suspicion" they are disobeying civil traffic laws while smuggling humans. [see definitions]
- Solicitation for Employment & Harboring Aliens - makes it a Class 1 Misdemeanor to obstruct traffic in order to recruit day workers, or for people legally ineligible to work in the United States to solicit employment. Also, makes it a criminal offense to transport or harbor illegal aliens, or encourage illegal aliens to move to Arizona. Vehicles used to illegally transport illegal aliens must be impounded. It's a Class 1 Misdemeanor and at least a $1,000 fine, unless it's 10 or more aliens at once in which case it's a Class 6 Felony and at least $1,000 per person.
- Employing Illegals - the AZ state laws making it illegal to employ illegal aliens are amended to include a means for employers to claim law enforcement tricked them into it (entrapment), with the burden of proof on the employers.
- Employing Illegals Again - same as Section 6, but for a different version of the same law (Section 23-212 vs. Section 23-212.01). I don't know why Arizona law includes the same text twice, but the fact that it does required them to amend it twice.
- Verifying Employment Eligibility - the AZ state law requiring employers to verify the employment status of new employees is amended to require the employer to keep those employment status records for the full term of employment or three years, whichever is longer.
- Impoundment of Vehicles - amended to list harboring or transporting of illegal immigrants as a valid reason to impound a vehicle.
- GIT EM - establishes Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team and Enforcement Mission as a state government agency that manages immigration enforcement funds.
- Procedural Details - this law is intended to obey all federal laws, but if any part of it is found inconsistent with federal law the inconsistency of that part will not be construed to affect the rest of the law.
- Names the bill the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act. What's that acronym, SOLE-SNA? SOLE-Safe? It's kinda awkward, and sounds isolationist.
Definitions
- GIT EM
- Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team and Enforcement Mission, the Arizona state agency established by this bill to handle the funding and finances of the new expense of this new state-level enforcement of federal immigration law.
- ICE
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Federal Government's immigration agency. Formerly the INS; Immigration and Naturalization Service.
- Lawful Contact
- This bill is famous for coining the term "lawful contact," since it didn't strictly have a definition before. It generally means "the kind of contact cops have with folks through official business", but Arizona had to pass another law defining the term more strictly in the face of public criticism of it's ambiguity. The amended version calls it "a lawful stop, detention or arrest." More on that when I cover the amendments in a later post.
- May
- If you may do something, you have permission but no mandate or requirement to. It's an option available to you, if you so choose.
- Peace Officer
- General term for any officer of any law enforcement agency, including police officers, parole officers, customs officers, court officers, corrections officers, etc.
- Probable Cause
- The amount of proof needed for police to arrest a suspect or for a judge to issue a warrant.
- Reasonable Attempt
- To make a reasonable attempt is to try but resist being fanatical about it. If it's not doable, fine. Move on to something else. "Reasonable" in the legal sense has it's basis in the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. However, the phrase "reasonable attempt" is in the common vernacular, not legalese.
- Reasonable Suspicion
- The 4th Amendment of the Constitution protects against unreasonable search and seizure. Reasonable suspicion is a legal term for the standard of proof necessary for a search or seizure to be allowable by the 4th Amendment, meaning that the cop must be able to articulate facts in court to defend his decision to conduct the search or seizure. It can't just be a hunch. [source]
Standards of Proof
- Hunch
- You think something is up, but you can't explain why. This is enough evidence to alter individual behavior, but is insufficient for any legal action.
- Reasonable Suspicion
- Enough evidence that you can explain why you are suspicious and most folks will agree that it looks suspicious. This is enough evidence for a police officer to conduct an impromptu search, such as frisking a suspect or pulling a car over, but not necessarily enough to enter a residence without the owner's permission or to arrest anyone.
- Probable Cause
- Enough evidence to be reasonably confident the suspect committed the crime. This is enough evidence for a cop to arrest a suspect, or for a judge to issue a search warrant. It's one of two requirements for a cop to enter a residence without permission (the other being exigent circumstances; it has to be an emergency of human health or life or the survival of evidence). It is not necessarily enough evidence to convict.
- Without a Shadow of a Doubt
- The evidence so obviously proves the claim that one cannot doubt it; it's clearly true. This is the standard of evidence for conviction of a crime.
The primary criticism of the bill is that allowing any peace officer with any reasonable reasonable suspicion of lapsed immigration status permission to investigate (by, say, asking for state ID) at any time qualifying under the vague condition of "lawful contact" lends itself to civil rights abuses both of immigrants and of Hispanics and other minorities likely to be suspected of illegal immigration. The rebuttal is that the "reasonable suspicion" must be articulable in court without any mention of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, as a determination made on those grounds would constitute discrimination by federal law and, thus, are explicitly excluded by Section 2-J of the bill.
Another criticism is that it mandates officers to check immigration status. In rebuttal, the word "may" is used 19 times in the bill and it mandates agencies to allow their officers to check immigration status if they so choose, whereas only one section (2-B) requires an officer to do anything. Even then, what constitutes "reasonable suspicion", "a reasonable attempt", and what is "practicable" are, by practical necessity, left to the officer's personal judgment to varying degrees.
Another criticism is that it doesn't change the law enough to make any relevant change to Arizona's culture, as intended. Personally, I think establishing a new state agency, defining two or three new crimes, and synchronizing federal, state, and local enforcement is a substantial change and there will probably be some effect (even if it's just pushing illegal immigrants into neighboring states). I suppose the content of the amendments and the results of the backlash must be taken into account before I can be completely certain, though.
