'Arizona clone' bills are Unworkable, Bigoted

From [HERE] Senate Bill 2179 does not address our real needs.

The cost of this proposal is astronomical at a time when Mississippi cannot afford it.

It would invite costly legal challenges, reduce state income and tarnish our state's current image. It wastes law enforcement resources and diverts police attention away from addressing serious crimes.

This bill is founded on inaccurate information claiming that unauthorized immigrants use services and bring crime to Mississippi. However, they pay all of the same taxes - income, sales, fees and property - as the rest of us.

They pay into the Social Security fund without the hope of being able to access the benefit, subsidizing the fund with billions in contributions. The fact is the crime rate among immigrants is considerably lower than the U.S. born.

It will make it harder for law enforcement officers to do their jobs by driving a wedge between them and the communities they seek to protect.

If enacted this law will erode public trust in law enforcement and make the job of police officers harder.

This law will send a chilling effect through the immigrant communities, serving as a deterrent for both victims and witnesses to report crime to the police.

This law is a challenge to who we are as a state and who we are as human beings. This proposal only panders to the fear, xenophobia and bigotry of only some of our residents. This legislation violates the civil rights of all residents of Mississippi and anyone visiting our state.

It would mandate that local law enforcement officials, who are not trained in the complicated federal immigration laws, to make intrusive and unnecessary inquiries into the immigration status of residents and travelers. It presumes everyone is guilty.

This legislation subjects anyone who looks different or is perceived as "foreign" to discrimination and racial profiling. If you did not speak English, or had an unfamiliar accent you could end up in jail while your status was determined.

We need to ask ourselves what kind of state we want to live in-one that respects human rights, or one that returns to the days of trampling on the rights of people of color. The bill's title is telling: "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act of 2011."

According to the FBI hate crimes against Latinos have spiked over the past five years. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports the number of hate groups targeting Latinos has jumped over the past five years.

Shamefully, Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant culled much of the information in his notorious immigration reports from one of them-the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and one of it offshoots.

Racial profiling of communities of color is already widespread and violates constitutional protections and human rights. Instead of creating more problems, we should focus on solutions.

We must be honest about why people are being forced to migrate from their homelands and why they have to circumvent our archaic and racist immigration system to provide for their families.

Creating a patchwork of 50 different immigration laws is unworkable and dangerous. The solution to our broken immigration system lies in Washington, not in Mississippi.