Yes, racial profiling is prohibited in the new Arizona law but if there is already so much chaos in the immigration enforcement system (as illustrated by the story of Eduardo Caraballo in Chicago), how much more potential is there for chaos (and abuse) as each state creates its own enforcement policies?Fr Ernesto Obregon tells the story from his perspective as a Cuban-American.
The reason that the assurances of Gov Jan Brewer fall on deaf ears is that Hispanics in the US have learned to NOT trust the government. I don't think that state laws are the solution to the immigration chaos, but if Arizona legislators had first included the local Hispanic leaders in the process of creating their new immigration law -- if they had first built some trust -- the fear level would be a lot lower.
To make matters worse, no one in the Arizona state government seems concerned about doing damage control. They're still not tapping into the wisdom of the Mexican-American leadership in the community or reaching out to our fellow citizens who are Hispanic.
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