June, 02 2011, 03:40pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Gebe Martinez, (202) 730-7152 gebe.martinez@seiu.org
Jackeline Stewart, (202) 730-7739 jackeline.stewart@seiu.org
SEIU Challenges Georgia's New Racial Profiling Law
SEIU is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Georgia's new "show me your papers" law. Georgia's "Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act" or HB 87, is an Arizona SB1070 copycat legislation that would authorize local police officers to investigate and arrest people if they sense immigration violations. Eliseo Medina, International Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, issued the following statement on the need for federal comprehensive immigration legislation:
WASHINGTON
SEIU is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Georgia's new "show me your papers" law. Georgia's "Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act" or HB 87, is an Arizona SB1070 copycat legislation that would authorize local police officers to investigate and arrest people if they sense immigration violations. Eliseo Medina, International Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, issued the following statement on the need for federal comprehensive immigration legislation:
"Georgia's new racial profiling law sounds the alarm for federal solutions to our nation's broken immigration system. We are challenging the law because it legalizes racial profiling, betrays American values of fairness and equality, and violates the U.S. Constitution.
If the law is enforced, all people may be subject to harassment, unlawful arrest, and detention. The legislation will in some instances perpetuate, and in other instances create, a fear of law enforcement among residents, leading to unreported crimes and heighten tensions that already exist between people of color and the police because of this country's dark history of racial profiling.
Immigration is a federal issue. Two courts have ruled that Arizona's SB1070 preempted federal jurisdiction over immigration, and several other states decided not to copy Arizona following those rulings. Apparently Georgia did not get the message. We cannot and will not stand idly by as Georgia is turned into a police state. We will not remain silent as the state's residents are turned into potential suspects because of the color of their skin. We will not allow racial profiling legislation to undermine our democracy, and erode our civil rights.
A federal response to our immigration problems is the only way to restore the rule of law and protect Americans from civil rights abuses. "
With 2 million members in Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico, SEIU is the fastest-growing union in the Americas. Focused on uniting workers in healthcare, public services and property services, SEIU members are winning better wages, healthcare and more secure jobs for our communities, while uniting their strength with their counterparts around the world to help ensure that workers--not just corporations and CEOs--benefit from today's global economy.
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
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As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
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Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
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