By Cherie Curry
Legal News
When 72-year-old Antonio Estrada immigrated to the United States from Guadalajara, Mexico, he came in pursuit of a new home, employment and the desire to exercise his personal freedom.
Now, as a resident of southwest Detroit for more than a decade, Estrada feels like those liberties are threatened.
“It angers you. People are being treated like animals. Poor people like that have come here to get ahead are being treated inhumane,” Estrada said.
Estrada directs his frustration at the reports he has read and the images he has seen of people protesting Arizona’s sweeping and controversial immigration bill.
Under the legislation, which was signed into law last month and is set to take effect in late July, police would have greater authority with respect to regulating immigration.
Certain provisions require police, who are enforcing other laws, to verify a person's immigration status if they have “reasonable suspicion” of an illegal presence in the United States. It also makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and other civil rights groups recently filed suit against the measure, challenging the law on constitutional grounds.
Like many immigrants from Mexico and Latin America, Estrada believes the law is unconstitutional and will lead to racial profiling.
He believes it will have a reverberating effect in Michigan and other states across the country.
“Now with the bill, you’re a little hesitant that you’re going to be stopped,” Estrada said. “I have friends that have already been detained by police here. It’s something recent. It wasn’t ongoing and happening before. Yes, there is a lot of fear.”
Fear, possibly, that a new immigration bill could pass in Michigan.
State Rep. Kim Meltzer (R-Macomb Township) has proposed enacting legislation in Michigan that is similar to Arizona’s law.
“The reality is that this is a problem and we need a solution,” Meltzer said. “I see this as an opportunity to get attention to the issue.”
According to Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), nearly 125,000 illegal immigrants were estimated to be in Michigan as of 2005.
That number is 77 percent higher than the 70,000 figure estimated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in a 2000 field report.
“We need a policy that enforces existing law and prohibits anything that circumvents or undermines federal immigration law,” Meltzer said.
Meltzer, who proposed the law at the beginning of May, said the bill is still in draft form and will be submitted to the Legislative Service Bureau.
Once the bill is returned, Meltzer said she would work with a legal team to revise the legislation to ensure its validity as a legal document before submitting it for co-sponsorship, and to a House committee for review.
Meltzer stressed that the bill would be constitutional and its enforcement would not violate due process guarantees.
“If a police officer is asking for documentation, how is that illegal? There has to be an initial violation of the law before a police officer stops you,” Meltzer said. “There are not going to be these random stops made.”
The proposed measure has thus far received a certain degree of political backing.
During a May 18 rally at the state Capitol, nearly a hundred people turned to voice their support, according to Meltzer.
Many in the crowd reportedly voiced concern that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Michigan residents.
They asserted that police should be allowed to request proof of citizenship from people they stop on another offense, if there is a question about citizenship.
But the Michigan bill has also drawn its share of critics. Immigration attorney Manuela Policicchio opposes the proposed immigration legislation.
Policicchio runs MDP Immigration Law in Brownstown. She assists her primarily Hispanic clientele with visa petitions, removal defense work, and other legal services.
She believes there is a lot of misinformation about the immigration problem, and a general lack of understanding as to why some immigrants have illegal status in the first place.
“I believe the problem with illegal immigration is that there are a large percentage of people in Michigan that are undocumented, have lived here for a large part of their adulthood, or their entire childhood, and have children that are U.S. citizens, but that are ineligible for green cards,” Policicchio said.
She estimates that out of every 100 people she counsels, 70 do not have an immediate path to permanent residency, mostly due to illegal entries in the country, long visa waiting lines, or because they have no immediate family members that can petition for their citizenship.
Policicchio views the passage of Arizona’s immigration bill as a starting point for generating dialogue about the nationwide immigration problem.
Still, she regards the legislation as a disappointment and hopes a comparable law is not passed in Michigan.
“I think it would have a horrendous impact,” Policicchio said. “It would give police an incredible amount of power over people's immigration status, even though they may have no adequate training on federal immigration laws. This would clearly lead to racial profiling. There is only one agency that should have that power and that is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Federal Agency.”
Attorney Cheryl Brikho has been practicing immigration law for 15 years and currently works at the Sam Shihab & Associates, L.L.C immigration law firm in Troy. She also rejects the need for a new immigration law in the state.
“Anyone who looks foreign born, or sounds foreign born, is immediately going to be a suspect and that’s racial profiling. It’s unconstitutional for that reason,” Brikho said. “This would impact both illegal and legal residents.”
Brikho added that such proposed state immigration laws are a violation of the U.S. Constitution's Article VI Supremacy Clause, which establishes the Constitution, Federal Statutes, and U.S. treaties as "the supreme law of the land." Brikho emphasized that if an immigration law goes into effect, it will have adverse economic implications for the state. She said it could cost Michigan millions of dollars to train police officers on enforcing the law and would likely trigger a drop in business.
“People will be less likely to gather and shop in places where there are a lot of foreigners because there is a fear they might be targeted,” Brikho said.
Moreover, Brikho said the pending legislation would have legal ramifications, forcing the state to challenge lawsuits, potentially running up a sizeable legal tab for taxpayers.
“I don’t think that Michigan should go down that road. Ultimately, what we need is a comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the overall immigration problem and is enforced by the federal government, not the states. Enforcement by the states is a wrong and failed approach,” Brikho said.
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