The Clergy Campaign for Social and Economic Justice stands today with the New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC, together with other immigration advocates and religious, moral and civic leadership in response to the Supreme Court of the United States decision on the constitutionality of Arizona Senate Bill 1070. American’s throughout the country today go about the business of living their lives trying in the best way that they know how to obtain their slice of the American pie, most without considerations of how they or their ancestors from lands far away came to these shores through the processes of migration and immigration, at different times over hundreds of years. But we acknowledge, through all of our collective struggles to scratch out an existence for ourselves, and to build a better future for our families and children to engage and enjoy the American Dream in this dynamic melting pot, that we are all American’s. We must come to the education and realization that immigrants still come to America looking to live a better life, and they live among us with the desire to labour with us and to make dynamic and beneficial contributions to the glorious fabric of our union. We must also come to the education and realization that there are those in America who seek to demean and marginalize those immigrants, and who try at every turn to strip them of their human dignities, violate their persons and the human soul and spirits that burgeon with them, in an attempt to crush their hopes and dreams, and any desire to live and prosper among us. We must oppose Arizona SB1070 and any ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States to legitimize it, and all laws similar to it. We appreciate the Supreme Courts wisdom in striking down some aspects of Arizona SB1070 which pertained to the exclusive right of the Federal Government to make and enforce immigration law, but we strenuously reject on moral, human rights and constitutional grounds the Courts ruling to let stand aspects of that legislation allowing racial profiling by law enforcement.
There are four (4) major aspects of this individual state legislation that is profoundly objectionable and culturally, socially and politically immoral. 1. Requiring an officer to check the immigration status of ‘certain’ individuals in ‘certain’ local law enforcement contact situations; 2. making the failure to carry ‘alien registration’ documents a crime; 3. forbidding illegal immigrants to work; and 4. authorizing local law enforcement officers to engage in warrantless arrests. This is New York City’s “Stop, Question and Frisk” police methodology on nuclear gamma radiation. If we understand how problematic, and a violation of the human and civil rights of young black and brown people in the city of New York, the NYPD “Stop, Question and Frisk’ methodology is, it is crystal clear how devastating the Arizona SB1070 law is. NO STATE should be able to unilaterally make their own immigration legislation, usurping federal law, and immigration policy in particular, to racially profile any class of human beings in violation of their human and civil rights to promote xenophobia, and there is no way morally, politically or legally that the Supreme Court of the United States of America can sanction its practice in Arizona.
Arizona maintains no inherent or legal right simply because it is a border state to make immigration law, or to decide how federal immigration law is to be implemented and enforced. Only congress, acting through its legislative authority can make immigration law, and as it pertains to any law with similarity to Arizona SB1070, it has not done so. It remains for the Executive Branch of the United States federal government to set forth policy for the implementation of immigration policy within the framework of the existing law, and the Obama Administration has done so. We further, use our spiritual and moral voices to admonish all three (3) branches of the U.S. federal government to engage immigration legislation and policy that respects and affirms the constitutional, human and civil rights of every person in America, striking down legislation and policy that uses racial profiling as a tool to oppress and marginalize any peoples, and to pass moral and compassionate immigration law that helps illegal immigrants to obtain legal permanent residency and provides for a clear path to progressive citizenship. We stand for a progressive twenty-first Century America for all people. Arizona’s SB1070 is in clear violation of the first and fourth amendments of the Constitution of the United States, as well as federal immigration law and it is a usurpation of the Executive Branches constitutional authority to set forth policy for both the implementation of immigration law and the exercise of discretion within the framework of existing immigration law. Consequently, as a matter of constitutional law, morality and human rights and dignity that impact upon us all, we demand that the aspects of Arizona Senate Bill 1070 allowing racial profiling by law enforcement be rejected by the highest court in our land, and we stand committed in the fight to see it and all similar laws abolished.
The Rt. Reverend Bishop Dr. Raymond H. Rufen-Blanchette
Executive Chairman
The Clergy Campaign for Social and Economic Justice
Contact: (718) 807-4780 | theclergycampaign@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/revelationplgrm
