U-Md. students react to Arizona immigration law

By Sheila Kelly

Staff Writer

Latinos protest Arizona law in Arizona Courtesy of Huffington Post

The new Arizona immigration legislation that allows police to ask people for proof of legal status at random and arrest those without documentation has divided the nation on the issue of immigration reform. The controversy has made Arizona a point of contention on a national level as well as at the University of Maryland, where students have mixed feelings about the new law.

Despite accusations that the legislation promotes racial profiling and disapproval from President Obama, the Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) signed senate bill 1070 into law on April 23.

“It’s horrible, it’s unfair, it’s unjust,” said Thony Mena, a Dominican-native junior theatre major who compared police asking for documentation to the Nazis asking Jews for citizenship papers in the 1930s and 40s. “If you don’t have your license that day and you’re a legitimate citizen, theoretically speaking, you could be thrown in jail or whatever they want to do.”

Mena believes that while immigration reform is necessary, demanding proof of citizenship is a step in the wrong direction.

“There must be a better way to tackle this situation,” Mena said. “Something should be or could be done about them coming in here but I don’t think this is the way to go.”

Some students agree that the law is flawed, but believe it has potential benefits as well.

“I hope that it opens up some peoples’ eyes about the horrible state of immigration control in this country right now,” said Anthony Herman, a junior broadcast journalism major who identifies as a conservative. “The border control in this country is absolutely terrible and people need to take it seriously or more things like this Arizona law are going to keep happening.”

Herman disagrees with the actual implementation of the law because, he said, it promotes racism by Arizona police.

Still other students find it hard to form an opinion on the matter since the law is in Arizona and does not have apparent implications on students in Maryland.

“I see both sides of the story basically,” said Laura Murphy, a junior history and secondary education double major, who believes that the issue is not of dire importance to her because she lives in Maryland. “I see that America wants to protect itself, but it’s also infringing on other peoples’ rights.”

Murphy learned about the Arizona immigration law in a European history class where her professor compared the legislation to similar laws in France.

“It’s expected for people to come up and ask for your citizenship papers just to make sure you’re allowed to be there,” Murphy said. “As an American, though, you want to be like, ‘Oh no, that’s not ok.’ Realistically, though, why can’t we do this?”

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Posted by admin on May 10 2010. Filed under Local News, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry