In a press release that will no doubt be mocked by its critics, the Florida ACLU today issued what they labeled a "travel alert" informing Florida residents of their rights if stopped law enforcement traveling in Arizona over the holiday weekend.
That state's controversial anti-illegal immigration bill, SB 1070, won't go into effect for another month, on July 29, but the ACLU is on it right now.
"Our principal goal is to protect Floridians traveling to Arizona from an immigration enforcement law that puts people at risk of unlawful detention,” said Muslima Lewis, ACLU of Florida Racial Justice Project Director. “Florida is home to individuals of many different nationalities and ethnicities. The Arizona law encourages the use of a racial profile that would target many Floridians for unlawful detention in blatant disregard of America’s most fundamental values of fairness and equality. It is likely that Florida residents traveling to Arizona could become victims of Arizona’s discriminatory law.”
The ACLU is among one of several groups who filed a lawsuit against the state after the passage of the bill.
Meanwhile, PolitiFact is declaring Arizona Governor Jan Brewers' assertion last week that "the majority of people that are coming to Arizona and trespassing are now becoming drug mules," a false statement. Brewer made the comment on June 25:
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2010.