From Arizona-
This morning I was pleased to see that the Episcopal Bishop of Arizona, the Rt. Rev. Kent Smith, has written an article for the Huffington Post about the SB 1070 statute recently passed and signed in Arizona. You can read it here: www.huffingtonpost.com/rt-rev-kirk-stevan-smith/arizonas-anti-immigration_b_554754.html
Bishop Smith's points against the law come from a religious perspective, including his contention that "humanitarian aid is never a crime," as signs outside many Tucson churches read. Under SB 1070, the bishop holds that there is now a threat against Christians and believers in other faith systems that they can and wll be prosecuted for showing human compassion to others.
Of course we run no risk if we can tell that a person is an illegal border-crosser merely by looking at them (although our Governor admits that she doesn't know what an illegal looks like). I think that we are also intimidated by this provision in SB 1070:
"A PERSON MAY BRING AN ACTION IN SUPERIOR COURT TO CHALLENGE ANY
OFFICIAL OR AGENCY OF THIS STATE OR A COUNTY, CITY, TOWN OR OTHER POLITICAL
SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE THAT ADOPTS OR IMPLEMENTS A POLICY THAT LIMITS OR RESTRICTS THE ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAWS TO LESS THAN THE FULL EXTENT PERMITTED BY FEDERAL LAW."
While overall I believe that this sentence is meaningless, since it refers to federal law rather than the new Arizona statute, the implication is that a person can sue a police officer or a police department if they think that they are slacking off on enforcing SB 1070. This type of "turn in your neighbor" law is reminiscent of many World War II movies and books. That is, it reminds me of Nazis.
More here-
http://www.examiner.com/x-26492-Tucson-Liberal-Christian-Examiner~y2010m4d28-Episcopal-Bishop-of-Arizona-posts-opinion-on-SB-1070
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