Police officers in Arizona will no longer stop, detain and arrest people based purely on “reasonable suspicion” that they may be in the country illegally, Reuters reports. The Arizona state law that permitted this strategy, known as S.B. 1070, was challenged in court by the National Immigration Law Center, among other immigrant rights groups.
The plaintiffs of the case argued that the law would lead to racial profiling, particularly of people of Latino descent. The conclusion of this legal dispute came in the form of a settlement. In addition to stopping the law enforcement practice, the state will also be obligated to pay $1.4 million to the plaintiffs in lawyer fees.
S.B. 1070, also known as the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, was passed in 2010. The law garnered both national and international attention, due to its status as the most hardline anti-immigration measure in the country. The act required state police officers to ask for documentation in order to ascertain the subject’s immigration status. The Supreme Court, in 2012, partially struck down the law, but the most controversial provisions of the bill were upheld.
New guidelines for law enforcement, released by Arizona State Attorney General Mark Brnovitch, ensure that police do not stop anyone based on race or ethnicity to establish whether they are in the country legally.
