Jackson Free Press

Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance Executive Director Bill Chandler said a Senate Committee's approval of an anti-immigrant bill yesterday will "put a target" on all Latinos in Mississippi, regardless of their resident status.

Prior to the bill's passage, Chandler had urged lawmakers to vote against the legislation during a press conference at the state Capitol Wednesday.

"We need to ask ourselves what kind of state we want to live in; one that respects human rights, or one that returns to the days of trampling on the rights of people of color," he said.

The bill is similar to a controversial Arizona law that forces local and state law enforcement to ask for proof of legal residency from individuals they suspect are undocumented immigrants.

"We don't represent people who are here illegally," said Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, minutes before voting in favor of the measure, along with a majority of the committee. Fillingane is the primary author of the bill, which is almost an exact copy of a controversial Arizona law the U.S. Department of Justice disputes as overstepping an authority reserved for the federal government.

Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, said he considered it "an honor to be part of the process" that created the bill because federal government is not doing its part to enforce the law, so the responsibility falls on the states.

Sen. Kelvin Butler, D-McComb, voted against the bill, saying it would encourage racial profiling, because law enforcement officers would likely base their inquiries upon a person's appearance.

"I have nephews and church members who go through this every day," said Butler, who is black. "You will never understanding profiling. You'll never understand a man with a new car who gets pulled over because he looks like me. That's why you'll never understand racial profiling, and you'll never understand me."

In the proposed bill, Fillingane said, an officer may not pull a suspect over for potentially being an undocumented immigrant, but can only inquire about resident status after pulling a driver over for a different offense, such as not wearing a seat belt or having a broken taillight.

Sen. T.O. Moffatt, R-Gautier, asked if Fillingane could site the potential costs of the bill on local law enforcement for the additional manpower, training and jail space for new offenders.

Fillingane said the figures were not available, and predicted that the costs of doing nothing "outweighed the cost" of enacting the bill.

Senate Bill 2179 will now go to the Senate floor for a full Senate vote. If passed, it will go to a House committee for approval, and if it survives that, will require a full vote of the House before going to Gov. Haley Barbour for a signature in passed by the House.

Previous Commentsshow

Some folks just can't stand the idea of Arizona outdoing us on the hate front. They want to keep us mired in our past. Sick.

DonnaLadd

Jan 14 2011

Of course, this is just a cheap ploy for bigoted votes, le wedge issue du jour. Law enforcement hate the bill; it's unconstitutional on its face; and it targets American citizens based on whether they "look" like they might be an immigrant (and ask police officers to do that un-American profiling). It's digusting, and fit for the Citizens Councils of the past, not a Mississippi trying to be better than our past and attract and keep high-paying jobs and stop the brain drain of our best and brightest. It is demagoguery at its worst. Shame on these idiots.

DonnaLadd

Jan 14 2011

Remember this universal law: The more unfriendly you are, the less business you will attract. The immigration bill is a stupid bill that will harm Mississippi in the pocketbook.

gwilly

Jan 14 2011

Right, gwilly. Anti-immigrant legislation has cost every municipality and every state that has passed such laws (see Prince William County, Va., as an example). As an immigrant and a citizen, I find such legislation abhorrent on many, many levels. Other than Native Americans, I can't think of one American citizen who is not descended from immigrants. Many of our forebears hardly came here by "legal" means unless you see colonization and slave transport as "legal." Nativists—who have been around since colonial days, ironically—are really good at overlooking that bit of hypocrisy. As in every other locale with anti-immigrant laws, immigrants—whether citizens or not, and from every country—will leave places where they are not wanted. And before anyone says, "Good riddance," think about how losing additional revenue will hurt neighborhood businesses that are already endangered in this economy, and how that loss will extend to further diminish the tax base. Let's also not forget the roots of this legislation: the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, "a nativist extremist hate group with a penchant for hiring officials who are active in white supremacist organizations and write for anti-immigrant hate sites," according the the Southern Poverty Law Center. We need a better way to resolve our immigration issues, not a return to our racist past.

Ronni_Mott

Jan 14 2011

The worst part: Most of the legislators likely know it's unconstitutional. They're putting us through this mess and the further tarring of our state's reputation in order to rake in the bigoted vote. These people have contempt for Mississippians and want the world to think we haven't changed one iota. SHAME.

DonnaLadd

Jan 14 2011

And to make matters worse, Republican gubernatorial candidate James Broadwater of Byram wants to use the National Guard to prevent undocumented immigrants from living and working in Mississippi. I'd like to know how he's gonna pull it off and how much will it cost?

golden eagle

Jan 14 2011

Arizona suffered economic hardship resulting from passage of anti immigrant legislation. Mississippi has far more consumer products that will be hurt by a nation wide boycott similar to the one that occurred in Arizona. Can our tourism industry stand another year of people going elsewhere? Legislators need to think long and hard about their constituents before jumping on this ideological band wagon.

Jeffery R

Jan 18 2011