SB 1070 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

SB 1070 - Essay Example The Illinois’s legislative bill 123 together with the Arizona’s â€Å"Support our law enforcement and safe Neighborhood Act† is the strictest and wider anti-illegal immigration legislative act in the recent times. This bill intends to include more provisions to the federal laws of the United States of America. First, it would be a crime for individual aliens to be in the state of Illinois without the registration documents. It would also restrict the other state, local agencies and officials from the restricting enforcement of the federal immigration laws in the state of Illinois (Ferris, 289). It also provides for the crackdown for the individuals who are harboring, transporting or hiring aliens in the state illegally. This has been described as the strictest immigration law united states. The intent of these additional provisions was to reduce the number of illegal aliens who are estimated to approximately 460, 000 in Arizona only and even more in the state of Illinois and others states in the U.S. ... The act provides for the state law enforcements agencies to question, arrest or detain individuals who are reasonably suspected to be in the country illegally. In this context the act gives the state law enforcement agencies to enforce the law and ensure that the immigrants abide by the state laws. According to Warner (68), this is unconstitutional because the responsibility of enforcing the immigration laws is a federal responsibility and not a state responsibility. If there is reasonable suspicion that they might be in the country illegally, it is the responsibility of the federal governments to enforce the laws. The Illinois’s bill 123 can be described as a bill that affects foreign matters and hence its effect when passed into law would affect the foreign policy of not only the Illinois but also the United States o America. The unconstitutional nature of this act is that the state does not have powers to pass laws that affect the foreign policy and relations. According to Warner (69), just like the states have no authority of passing their own foreign policies or enter into treaties with the other nations of the world, they do not have immigration policies and laws. The argument here is that the immigration laws is an attribute of the foreign affairs and hence the state law enforcing agencies and officials do not have any little power to pass such laws. The signing of the law into affect would therefore mean that the state of Illinois has a different foreign policy compared to the United States of America foreign policies in general and hence it is therefore unconstitutional. The role of a state in enforcing federal immigration laws is provided for in the federal laws of the united state of America. However