page_title: Arizona SB 1070
section_title: Religious organizations and perspectives
hierarchical_section_title: Arizona SB 1070 / Reaction / Religious organizations and perspectives
caption_attribution_description: English: Minneapolis, Minnesota A coalition of community organizations held a protest against the new Arizona SB 1070 law which gives law enforcement more power to demand proof of citizenship and detain those they suspect of being illegal aliens. The protest was at the downtown Minneapolis Hilton where a fundraising was being held for the Minnesota Family Council attended by Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty and Fox News personality Mike Huckabee. The protest was supported by groups such as SEIU local 26 and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition. SB 1070 defines crimes involving hiring, transporting, harboring or concealing illegal aliens. The law requires Arizona officials and agencies to determine if "reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the U.S." and requires law enforcement officers "to arrest a person if the officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed any public offense that makes the person removable from the U.S." In effect, the law mandates that Arizona officials and law enforcement check for proof of citizenship without defining what "reasonable suspicion" or "probable cause" should be used to determine if such a check is required. Critics say this will inevitably lead to racial profiling.
context_page_description: The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act is a 2010 legislative Act in the U.S. state of Arizona that at the time of passage in 2010 was the broadest and strictest anti–illegal immigration measure passed in the United States. It has received international attention and has spurred considerable controversy.
  U.S. Federal law requires aliens older than 18 to possess any certificate of alien registration issued to him or her at all times; violation of this requirement is a federal misdemeanor crime. The Arizona act additionally made it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying the required documents, and required that state law enforcement officers attempt to determine an individual's immigration status during a "lawful stop, detention or arrest" when there is reasonable suspicion that the individual is an illegal immigrant. The law barred state or local officials or agencies from restricting enforcement of federal immigration laws, and imposed penalties on those sheltering, hiring and transporting unregistered aliens. The paragraph on intent in the legislation says it embodies an "attrition through enforcement" doctrine.
context_section_description: Activists within the church were present on both sides of the immigration debate, and both proponents and opponents of the law appealed to religious arguments for support.
  State Senator Pearce, a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has a substantial population in Arizona, frequently said that his efforts to push forward this legislation was based on that church's 13 Articles of Faith, one of which instructs in obeying the law.  This association caused a backlash against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and threatened its proselytizing efforts among the area's Hispanic population.  The church emphasized that it took no position on the law or immigration in general and that Pearce did not speak for it.  It later endorsed the Utah Compact on immigration and in the following year, took an official position on the issue which opposed Pearce's approach to immigration, saying, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is concerned that any state legislation that only contains enforcement provisions is likely to fall short of the high moral standard of treating each other as children of God.  The Church supports an approach where illegal immigrants are allowed to square themselves with the law and continue to work without this necessarily leading to citizenship."
  The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced the law, characterizing it as draconian and saying it "could lead to the wrongful questioning and arrest of U.S. citizens."  The National Council of Churches also criticized the law, saying that it ran counter to centuries of biblical teachings regarding justice and neighborliness.
  Other members of the Christian clergy differed on the law.  United Methodist Church Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño of Arizona's Desert Southwest Conference opposed it as "unwise, short sighted and mean spirited" and led a mission of prominent religious figures to Washington to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform.  But others stressed the Biblical command to follow laws.  While there was a perception that most Christian groups opposed the law, Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy said that immigration was a political issue that "Christians across the spectrum can disagree about" and that liberal churches were simply more outspoken on this matter.
caption: A protest against SB 1070 by a coalition of community organizations in Minneapolis
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