Experts go over SB 1070's key points

Angelhair

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Aug 22, 2009
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The full impact of the state's new immigration enforcement law may not be clear for months - attorneys and law enforcement officials need to make sense of its language, and legal challenges will be settled in court.

But here are seven things we do know about SB 1070, which Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law April 23 and is scheduled to go into effect in mid-August:

1. It requires police officers to determine the immigration status of everybody they arrest before that person is released.

• The law says: "Any person who is arrested shall have the person's immigration status determined before the person is released. The person's immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to 8 United States code section 1373(c)."

• What that means: This could mean lots of extra work for local police officers, who have to make the initial determination and then contact federal agents for verification, said Raymond Michalowski, an Arizona regents professor of criminology at Northern Arizona University. The law does not spell out how the determination and verification must be done.

Police officers almost always get identification from people they arrest, but most police departments don't use that information to check everybody's immigration status, he said.

"This becomes a very large, unfunded mandate for police departments," Michalowski said.

2. During any stop, detention or arrest, a police officer must try to determine a person's immigration status if the officer has reason to suspect the person is here illegally. An exception exists if making that determination might obstruct an investigation.


Experts go over SB 1070's key points
 
The full impact of the state's new immigration enforcement law may not be clear for months - attorneys and law enforcement officials need to make sense of its language, and legal challenges will be settled in court.

But here are seven things we do know about SB 1070, which Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law April 23 and is scheduled to go into effect in mid-August:

1. It requires police officers to determine the immigration status of everybody they arrest before that person is released.

• The law says: "Any person who is arrested shall have the person's immigration status determined before the person is released. The person's immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to 8 United States code section 1373(c)."

• What that means: This could mean lots of extra work for local police officers, who have to make the initial determination and then contact federal agents for verification, said Raymond Michalowski, an Arizona regents professor of criminology at Northern Arizona University. The law does not spell out how the determination and verification must be done.

Police officers almost always get identification from people they arrest, but most police departments don't use that information to check everybody's immigration status, he said.

"This becomes a very large, unfunded mandate for police departments," Michalowski said.

2. During any stop, detention or arrest, a police officer must try to determine a person's immigration status if the officer has reason to suspect the person is here illegally. An exception exists if making that determination might obstruct an investigation.


Experts go over SB 1070's key points


We need a law for that? Common sense would dictate that be checked, what with the illegal immigration problem in this country.
 

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