Leave Arizona to the Arizonians

A friend of ours just got back from a business trip to Phoenix. She is a beautiful, dark-skinned Puerto Rican woman. In Phoenix she was stopped and asked for her identification. She produced a valid Puerto Rican driver's license and was told that it was not acceptable because it was "not from the US." Our friend responded "yes, Puerto Rico is part of the US." The officer who stopped her said, "No it's not," and demanded her passport. Of course she did not have her passport because - since Puerto Rico is in fact part of the US - a passport is not required for US citizens (which all Puerto Ricans are) to travel between the island and the mainland.

Arizona's new anti-immigration law is scheduled to go into full effect on July 28, 2010. The law "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^[21] during a police stop for some other offense.^[22] Police may arrest a person if there is probable cause that the person is an alien not in possession of required registration documents." Acceptable documents are "the following four forms of identification: (a) a valid Arizona driver license; (b) a valid Arizona nonoperating identification license; (c) a valid tribal enrollment card or other tribal identification; or (d) any valid federal, state, or local government-issued identification,"

Within a week of its signing, the bill was changed with "the amended text stating that 'prosecutors would not investigate complaints based on race, color or national origin.'^[25] The new text also states that police may only investigate immigration status incident to a 'lawful stop, detention, or arrest.'"

(Quotes are from Wiki-pedia.)

The Arizona governor said "profiling will not be allowed" to enforce the new law. If there is no profiling, on what basis will the the police determine "reasonable suspicion?" Either everybody is presumed innocent, everyone is presumed guilty, or some people are presumed guilty and others innocent. There must be some basis for how the latter are determined. Sounds like profiling to me.

By the way, on this same trip in the same town, our friend was denied entrance to a club while her lighter-skinned companions were admitted.

Seems like Arizonians want Arizona all to themselves. I say let 'em have it.