[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 27, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H4068-H4069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ARIZONA IMMIGRATION POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the 
immigration policy of the State of Arizona, a policy that Mitt Romney 
has called ``a model for America,'' to be largely unconstitutional. I 
applaud the Court for stating that immigration enforcement is a Federal 
responsibility.
  The ``show me your papers'' law allows police to demand that 
individuals prove that they are legally in this country. This law is 
not just a problem for people who are undocumented. It's not just a 
problem for immigrants. It's not just a problem for anybody who looks 
like they might have come to America from somewhere else. It's a 
problem for every American who cares about freedom. It's a problem for 
all of us who believe no person should be treated as a suspect based on 
how they look, their accent, or the spelling of their name.
  In Arizona today, all that stands between you and a legal nightmare 
is whether a police officer feels there is a reasonable suspicion to 
inquire about your country of origin. Yet Arizona politicians will tell 
you, with a straight face no less, that they can

[[Page H4069]]

apply this law without using racial profiling, without assuming that 
someone named Gutierrez isn't less likely to be in this country legally 
than someone named Smith.
  That's an amazing skill. Maybe with practice, we can all become like 
Arizona politicians and police officers who are able to telepathically 
determine who to accuse of not belonging in America.
  But let's take a quiz together this morning and learn how to pick out 
the suspect. Here are two journalists, Geraldo Rivera and Ted Koppel.
  At a traffic stop, to the untrained eye, we might guess that Geraldo 
Rivera, for some reason that clearly has nothing to do with the way he 
looks, might not be from America. Geraldo Rivera's mustache wouldn't 
confuse an Arizona law enforcement professional. They would know that 
Geraldo Rivera was born in Brooklyn, New York, and that Ted Koppel was 
born in Europe, in England, where his parents moved to flee from Hitler 
and Nazi Germany.
  Round two, this for our young fans of C-SPAN. This is Justin Bieber 
and Selena Gomez. These young people have overcome their very different 
national origins and become apparently a happy couple. I'm sure Justin 
helped Gomez learn all about American customs and feel more at home in 
her adopted country. Oh, wait a minute. I'm sorry, because I'm not a 
trained Arizona official, I somehow got that backwards. Actually, Ms. 
Gomez, of Texas, has helped Mr. Bieber, of Canada, learn about his 
adopted country.
  Justin, when you perform in Phoenix, remember to bring your papers.
  The next round shows how tricky Arizona's game of pick out the 
immigrant is to play. Here are two basketball superstars. Neither one 
is Latino. That's confusing already. You have to dig deeper to figure 
out who isn't the real American. So let's consider their names--Jeremy 
Lin and Tony Parker. Clearly, ``Lin'' sounds kind of foreign while 
``Tony Parker'' sounds American to me. But I'm not an Arizona police 
officer who would know that Jeremy Lin was born in Los Angeles, and 
Tony Parker--oops--Europe, Belgium. Wrong once again.
  Finally, here's just one more.
  In case the Supreme Court ever wants to meet in Phoenix to consider 
its ruling about Arizona's ``show me your papers'' law, if these two 
Justices step out to Starbucks, which one do you think is likeliest to 
be a suspect, the Anglo male or the Latina? Neither is an immigrant, 
but Antonin Scalia's father came through Ellis Island from Italy, and 
Sonia Sotomayor is a proud Puerto Rican with generations of U.S. 
citizen ancestors.
  We could play this game all day, but the point is simple. The idea 
that any government official can determine who belongs in America and 
who doesn't simply by looking at them is completely ridiculous, unfair, 
and un-American, and yet this absurdity is the law of Arizona.
  The Court signaled that it will be watching this law closely, and it 
should, because we count on the Court to protect our liberties, not 
restrict them.

                              {time}  1020

  Because, in America, people should always be judged by their actions. 
No person, not one, should be judged by the way they look, the sound of 
their voice, or the pronunciation of their last name--not in Arizona, 
not anywhere, not ever.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair.

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