Texas immigration policies are reminiscent of Arizona’s divisive “Show Me Your Papers” law
Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision allowing Texas to arrest and deport migrants resonated deeply in Arizona, which adopted its own divisive crackdown on illegal immigration more than a decade ago.
Arizona’s effort, which became known as the “show me your papers” law, sparked an outpouring of fear and anger after it passed in 2010 and shook state politics in ways that still resonate today — offering a lesson in what awaits us. Texas.
The law required immigrants to carry immigration documents, and gave police and sheriffs the authority to investigate and detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. It made undocumented immigrants afraid to drive or leave their homes. It led to boycotts and angry protests. A politics resists removed the law’s Republican architect from office. Legal challenges overturned key provisions of the law.
The measure also spurred a new generation of Latino activists to organize, register voters and run for office, creating a political movement that has helped elect Democrats across Arizona and transform a once reliably Republican state in a purple political battlefield.
“It made me realize where I stand in the United States, where my parents stand,” said Valeria Garcia, 21, an undocumented activist who was brought to Arizona from Mexico at age 4 and is now studying political science and cross-border science. studies at Arizona State University. “That was a political awakening.”
Immigration attorneys and immigrant children who grew up under the law, Senate Bill 1070, said it created profound fear and uncertainty in Latino communities across Arizona. Some families hurriedly left the state. Some stopped working.
“It really created a chilling effect across the state,” said Delia Salvatierra, an immigration attorney in Phoenix.
The Supreme Court struck down parts of Arizona law in a 2012 decision that declared the federal government, not the states, had the power to set immigration policy. In 2016, voters in Maricopa County ousted Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the hardline opponent of illegal immigration and a strong supporter of state crackdowns.
With the number of illegal border crossings reaching record levels, Republicans who control the Arizona state legislature have again pushed for strict new measures. Earlier this year they passed the “Arizona Border Invasion Act.” account similar to the Texas law that would have allowed local and state authorities to arrest and deport migrants who enter Arizona illegally. The veto was vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat.
Some who lived through the earlier law say the scars are still there. Denise Garcia, born in Phoenix to parents from Chihuahua, Mexico, was still in elementary school when the law went into effect. She vividly remembers how her family changed their routines to hide from authorities and felt afraid to leave the house. She said several immigrant friends from her neighborhood had moved back to Mexico. She said life felt like a haze of fear.
‘Are my parents going to be deported?’ she said. “Will I come home to an empty house?”