Imagine: your family takes a road trip to Zion National Park in Utah. You鈥檙e only an hour away and didn鈥檛 notice the speed limit was reduced to 65mph. You see the flashing lights of a police cruiser and realize your mistake. Embarrassed, but not concerned, you鈥檒l explain to the officer you鈥檙e from out of town and hope the ticket doesn鈥檛 cost too much.
The officer approaches the car to collect your license and registration. As you wait with your family, you realize the officer has been in his car for an unusual amount of time. Finally, he comes over and says something about your license not being adequate proof of your immigration status and asks if you鈥檙e a citizen of the United States. 鈥淏orn and raised,鈥� you reply, this being the first time you鈥檝e been asked that question by a policeman. Something about your response, or the way you look, or perhaps your license picture from 20 years ago when you had brown hair instead of gray, makes the officer tell you he has to run some checks on your ID 鈥� 鈥渟tandard procedure.鈥� You start to protest, baffled at what you鈥檝e possibly done wrong, as you wait on the side of the road to see what might happen next.
Seem outrageous? Un-American? Unconstitutional? This could happen to you or any other person traveling, living or working in Utah, if Utah鈥檚 new immigration enforcement law, H.B. 497, goes into effect this week.
Utah House Bill 497 is the Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act . By imposing complex authorizations and mandates on law enforcement officers to demand documentation reflecting immigration status from individuals they stop, detain, or arrest, H.B. 497 creates an unprecedented burden upon every individual in Utah, citizens and non-citizens alike. During a stop, a person must be able to produce one of to be presumed lawfully present in the country. However, even if an individual has a qualifying document proving his or her citizenship, and even take a person down to the station for an investigation into the person鈥檚 citizenship status. If an individual cannot produce a qualifying identity document, law enforcement officers are authorized, and in many cases required, to detain the individual and attempt to verify his or her immigration status.
By mandating that officers inquire about the immigration status of every individual they stop for traffic violations, jaywalking, or even littering, H.B. 497 would fundamentally change the day-to-day operations of local law enforcement. H.B. 497 would undermine the mission of local police to enforce criminal statutes and ordinances by injecting an immigration enforcement directive into every police encounter. , when local police focus on immigration violations, entire segments of the community will be afraid to report crimes. In a state where the rates of serious crimes, such as , officers should not focus on low-level immigration offenses while attention is diverted from serious issues facing their communities.
The 老澳门开奖结果 does not want our country to become a place where 鈥渟how me your papers鈥� is a common police call and racial profiling is sanctioned under the law. That is why last week we and preliminary injunction challenging H.B. 497. Today, the first hearing in the case to block the law will take place in Salt Lake City.
There are many reasons why immigration enforcement is a matter of federal, and not state, authority. Unfortunately, Utah is not alone in its attempt to usurp immigration authority from the federal government. States like Georgia, Indiana and Alabama have plans in the works to , each of which will likely be challenged on the same grounds as . Unless we plan to live in a society where the police can ask us to 鈥渟how our papers鈥� at any moment, we must not open the door to welcome the sort of police power and disregard for individual rights that laws like Utah鈥檚 H.B. 497 would bring.
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