Dear Haytham,
Jim Shee — an American citizen of Chinese and Spanish descent — was driving to his 70th birthday party when he was questioned by police demanding to see his "papers." It happened again a few days later. This is precisely the kind of unwarranted, biased suspicion and racial profiling that Arizona's SB1070 law — and each of the copycat measures now sweeping the country — invites. But there are other things the laws invite — ACLU lawsuits. In fact, the ACLU has swiftly responded to every single bill that has passed with a lawsuit. We have already brought Arizona, Utah, Indiana, Georgia and Alabama to court and will do the same with South Carolina later this summer. This kind of racial profiling has no place in America. The ACLU is taking care of business in the states, but we need the Obama administration to do its part to stop the anti-immigrant activists from putting these laws on the books. Tell Attorney General Holder: There is no place in our country for "show me your papers" laws. These state laws reflect a growing civil rights crisis that must be addressed nationally. They institutionalize racial profiling and discrimination in states and localities throughout the nation and are in direct violation of the Constitution. We've won preliminary injunctions in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia to stop these laws from taking effect. And on Friday, we went to court in Alabama. Like laws passed in other states, Alabama's new statute doesn't just give police the authority to carry out discriminatory and unconstitutional practices. It actually requires that everyone in Alabama carry the right sort of ID card or else be presumed an undocumented immigrant. We don't intend to sit still for this kind of hateful legislation. And we are counting on you to not sit still, either. Tell Attorney General Holder: Stop these racial profiling laws. Don't let this massive erosion of people's fundamental rights go unanswered. Act today by signing our ACLU "No place for racial profiling" petition.
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