Constitutionality of Arizona Immigration Law

    Arizona's immigration law was argued over by Federal judges yesterday (November 1). Here is the article
The article is brief and discusses the protests that were held outside of Federal buildings on Monday. Protesters argued that SB 1070 "violates equal protection and the constitution and violates First Amendment free-speech concerns" (Nazario, 2010).

    "South Asian organizer Hamid Khan says SB 1070’s underlying message is that undocumented immigrants threaten national security. "And hence they are always suspect. That kinda takes every community into its fold, whether you’re Pakistani, whether you’re Chicano, whether you’re from Korea.”" (Nazario, 2010). This statement made me think of Leo Chavez's text, The Latino Threat and when he discussed how after September 11 the United States- Mexico boarder emerged as a "new threat"- a "gateway through which possible terrorists might enter" (2008, p.36).
  
     It seems as though that belief has persisted to some extent and I think that Nazario's article exemplifies it. When these views are argued, they tend to place labels onto large groups of immigrants, many of these labels extending from generalizations. I do not think it is fair that illegal immigrants be labeled as threats to national security, it simply fuels arguments that they are trying to essentially "invade" our country and take over with their culture, thus threatening our national identity- this is of course far from reality.