Thousands of protesters march against Arizona bill
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International Workers Day rallies all over the country, including Austin, turned into demonstrations against a controversial immigration law recently passed in Arizona.
The Arizona law would require local and state law enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being undocumented, and make it a crime for immigrants to lack registration documents.
The text of the Arizona bill states:
"For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the united states, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person. The person's immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to 8 united states code section 1373(c)."
"It's targeted against immigrants who are mostly from Latin American countries. I think that's what people are fed up with. They don't want to cause more divisions in our country than already exist," Caroline Keating-Guerra, with Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition, said.
Thousands of protesters waved signs, chanted and marched from the Texas Capitol down Congress Avenue to City Hall Saturday afternoon.
Three City of Austin council members have already announced they will proposed a boycott on Arizona at the next council meeting.
Some spectators at the rally, however, saw the issue as one of basic law enforcement.
"I am Mexican by heritage. My family is Mexican, and I'm very proud of that. But I'm not here to give anyone a handout," retired police officer Jesus Hernandez said. "If I have to come to somebody and say 'What is your name and are you a citizen of the United States,' how is that racial profiling?"
But opponents of the bill say it will inevitably lead to profiling of Latinos, whether they be an immigrant or not.
"There's no way around racial profiling. How are you going to identify someone who's undocumented? That's what they have to do, basically, to try to screen people who they think are undocumented," Keating-Guerra said.
Protesters in cities across the country said they're concerned about the repercussions of the law, but those in Texas said they're fighting against the idea that a similar law could one day come to Texas.
Republican Texas lawmaker Rep. Debbie Riddle has announced plans to introduce such legislation in Texas during the 2011 legislative session. Gov. Rick Perry, however, has said he won't support a law requiring law enforcement to question people about their immigration status. He says such a law wouldn't be right for Texas, and would take officers away from their existing duties.