Kucinich on Arizona Immigration Law: Unconstitutional, Draconian

Washington D.C. (April 28, 2010) -- Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today attended a press conference to speak out forcefully against the controversial Arizona law that gives law enforcement the authority to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. Following the event, Kucinich issued the following statement:







“SB 1070 [the Arizona law] unconstitutionally gives the State of Arizona the power to regulate immigration and requires local law enforcement to determine the immigrations status of a person ‘where reasonable suspicion exists’ that the person in question may be in the country illegally.







Under this draconian law, residents of Arizona can be questioned by police simply for being suspected of, or perceived as being in this country illegally, in violation of their most basic constitutional rights. Once a person has been approached by local authorities, local law enforcement is required to verify their immigration status with the federal government.







The law is purposefully ambiguously written, providing local law enforcement with little to no guidance on what, or how, to determine what ‘reasonable suspicion’ is in determining the criteria that would allow them to question a resident about their legal status in the United States. This means that local law authorities now have the authority to conduct warrantless arrests of persons if the police officer has ‘reasonable suspicion’ to believe that they have broken the law.







The law does not provide proper training of local law enforcement in federal immigration law. Without this training, local law enforcement attempting to exercise the authority to arrest and detain residents based on mere suspicions, can be held liable for violations ...