Arizona Immigration Law
May 4, 2010 by app2usadvisor
Filed under Academic News, Crimes and safety
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This post is about the controversial Arizona Immigration Law arizona immigration law sb1070, formally known as Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act of 2010. Before we proceed, let us make this clear that this is one of the most controversial pieces of legislation enacted in the US in the last decade. app2us.com does not comment on or take sides on a political controversy. The purpose of this post is to increase awareness about the law among the students, specially the international students, and explore how it impacts those currently studying in, or planning to study in the state of Arizona. This post is in response to many questions we have received from worried students and their parents. Needless to mention, app2us.com is not a legal advisory service and please seek legal advise from qualified attorneys, if you need.
Here is the summary of the most contentious and relevant part of the new law: Law enforcement can ask you to prove that you are legally in the US. To do that you need to carry the papers that prove your legal status. If you are legally in the US it does not seriously impact you, but if you are not carrying any proof, it will lead to hassle, wastage of time and a possible short detention.
Here is the highlight of the law: The act makes it a crime for any citizen of another country to be in Arizona without carrying registration documents required by federal law, and obligates police to make an attempt, when practicable, to determine a person’s immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an illegal alien. A person is “presumed to not be an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States” if he or she presents any of the following four forms of identification: (a) a valid Arizona driver license; (b) a valid Arizona nonoperating identification license [the State ID issued by Arizona Motor Vehicle Division]; (c) a valid tribal enrollment card or other tribal identification; or (d) any valid federal, state, or local government-issued identification, if the issuer requires proof of legal presence in the United States as a condition of issuance.
Here is what it means in Simple English: If you are illegally in the United States, you are inviting trouble, and inviting serious trouble if you happen to be in Arizona. If you are legally present in United States, you need to carry some document to prove it. In other states, police can ask for immigration papers if and only if you are involved in or suspected of some other crime. In Arizona, police can ask for your immigration papers if they think you may be illegally in the United States. The level of education awareness and training of the police can vary and if you look, speak or behave differently, you can safely conclude that you are more likely to be stopped than a local person. The biggest problem that we foresee here that most local police officers would not have heard of words like F-1, D/S, OPT, CPT and many would have not seen an I-20 in their lifetime. So it can become very complicated to explain to them that you are indeed in legal status despite, say, your expired visa. Read this page to understand the concept of visa and status.
Be prepared: We strongly recommend all international students and their family members to obtain a state identification card. Always carry a driving license or state id issued by Arizona. If you are traveling from another state, carry the driving licence or the state ID from your state of residence. If you are new in US, and yet to obtain the state ID, carry your passport. If stopped by the police, do not panic and do not try to run away, and try to answer what they ask and do not answer what they don’t ask. Always carry the name and phone number of your international student advisor and give that to the police officer for verification of your status with the university. Once you have this ID, you will not have to explain your F-1, D/S, OPT, etc which very few police officers would understand.
We encourage all applicants to universities in Arizona to be aware of this law and increase their knowledge and awareness about this law. So far we see nothing serious and are not advising applicants to change their plans based on this law. However, at the end of the day those with multiple admission offers need to evaluate the offers in totality, and if they decide to study in a state which they perceive to be more friendly to people of all types and origins then it could be a loss for universities in Arizona. If you have additional or newer information on this law, please post your comments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_SB1070
