Advocates: Arizona Immigration Law endangers Nation’s Immigrant Heritage

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles has been tracking the issue with Arizona's controversial immigration law.

The Obama Administration has sued the state in an effort to have the Supreme Court rule on the constitutionality of SB1070 -- which mandated Arizona law enforcement officials to determine the immigration status of anyone that was stopped if the officer believed the individual might be an illegal immigrant.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the subject Wednesday.

CHIRLA Executive Director Angelica Salas released the following statement on the issue Wednesday:

“Let it be resolved, then, that Americans, regardless of skin color, accent, dress style, or where they were born, will not be discriminated against, held suspect, torn apart from their loved ones, or cast out of the American Dream. If allowed to stand, SB1070 endangers our nation’s proud immigrant heritage, mocks our constitution, and decreases our moral standing before each other.

“Once the Supreme Court is convinced of Arizona’s myopic, opaque, and divisive approach to unauthorized immigration, which has historically been the purview of the federal government, we expect them to strike it down. The road to discrimination must reach a dead end.

“America is the land of the free, where a man or a woman is judged by the content of his character, not the color of his skin or where he was born. America is a multicultural nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. America is better than SB1070.”