Arizona Summer Wildcat

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ARIZONA SUMMER

Jennie Finch announces her retirement Page 7

JULY 21-27, 2010 dailywildcat.com

A question of legality

Lisa Beth Earle/Arizona Summer Wildcat

Protesters gather in downtown Tucson demanding that Jan Brewer veto the new immigration bill SB 1070, arguing that it legalized racial profiling, three days before Brewer signed it into law.

UA’s ASL interpreters show signs By Rebecca Rillos ARIZONA SUMMER WILDCAT The University of Arizona Disability Resource Center provides services to students in need. American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters Heather Donnel and Kathy Murtaugh are two staff members for the center who have been catering to the needs of the UA’s deaf students for years. Donnel and Murtaugh have been interpreting at the UA for 11 and six years, respectively. They sign for approximately 12 students and faculty, although according to Donnel, the number used to be much higher. “With the Americans with Disabilities Act, students can go to any college now and get interpretation services,” said Donnel. “It used to be that only certain schools offered the services.” The Disability Resource Center has a total of five staff interpreters and several freelancers. The interpreters sign for nearly anything, according to Murtaugh, but mostly classes and lectures. Donnel and Murtaugh did not grow up using ASL, but rather learned the language later on in their lives. “I started learning sign to be able to communicate with a deaf girl I was teaching how to swim. Her whole family was deaf and her mom started teaching me sign,” said Donnel.“I actually didn’t take my first ASL class until my senior year of high school. My teacher told me I should become an interpreter so I applied to college for interpreting and that is what I’ve been doing ever since.” Murtaugh began learning ASL off and on during the 1980s and ‘90s. She said her passion for English drew her to sign language. “I’ve always loved it,” Murtaugh said. “I love the challenge of trying to get at what people are really trying to say and sign language really requires this.” Although knowing sign language is a valuable skill, Donnel and Murtaugh wanted to take on the responsibilities of making it their career. INTERPRETER, page 6

UA law professors weigh in on SB 1070 By Will Ferguson ARIZONA SUMMER WILDCAT UA law professors broke down Arizona Senate Bill 1070 into simpler terms and examined whether or not the law is invalidated by federal law in a recently released Preliminary Comment Draft. On July 22, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton will hear the federal government’s lawsuit against Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070. UA law professors Marc Miller and Gabriel Chin and political science professor and executive director of the International Studies Association, Thomas J.Volgy, provided insight into the upcoming legal hearing.

All three experts interviewed said immigration enforcement is first and foremost a federal issue. “Immigration issues are constitutionally federal matters; they do not belong to the state. If states could make immigration law, we wouldn’t have a federal government,” Volgy said. According to Miller and Chin, who coauthored the draft, there is little doubt that many parts of the statute are constitutional. Racial profiling, according to Chin, is not illegal when law enforcement officers base their decision to perform a stop on other factors as well. “In a situation where there is probable cause, the fact (that) the stop was also based

on race is not grounds for it to be thrown out,” Chin said. A key issue is whether SB 1070 is preempted by federal law, Miller said. While the federal government may decide to rule against several provisions in SB 1070, it does not mean the entirety of the law will be thrown out. “One of the central themes in the very long history of Supreme Court decisions is that immigration policy vests in the federal government,” Miller said. “The defense of the nation and foreign affairs and commerce with other nations also vests in the federal government. These are clear SB 1070, page 6

Whoever wins SB 1070 debate, we all lose

OPINION

Ever since the Arizona legislature passed Senate Bill 1070, a the federal government to an untenable point, one where they piece of legislation designed to combat illegal immigration in the are constantly fighting against opportunistic states taking state, it has been a matter of when, not if, the federal government liberties with their newfound power. To do so hamstrings the would challenge its legality. That long-anticipated ability of the United States to effectively and legal battle officially got underway July 6, when universally present a front against a very real the White House filed a contesting suit in Phoenix problem that, not matter how much we may federal court. wish it to, isn’t going anywhere. This is not the first Arizona immigration law to How can we expect immigrants to follow the come under legal scrutiny. A 2007 law that fined law if they are unclear as to what the laws are businesses for employing illegal immigrants is slated or where they apply? How can we expect law to appear before the Supreme Court sometime this enforcement officers to fairly apply the stanyear. That law is also being disputed on the grounds dards of law that can change on the whim of a Luke Money that it subverts federal authority, though the 9th U.S. state legislature? Opinions editor Circuit Court of Appeals has already upheld it. The simple answer to all these questions is that These two laws are destined to determine how the immigration we cannot. Immigration is a nationwide problem and thus must debate is conducted into the future. If the Supreme Court rules be dealt with on a nationwide level, and only the federal governthat Arizona is in the right and has the authority to police their ment can, and should, deal with this issue. own borders and citizens, then there will be virtually no legal There are those that say that only those states that share a ground for federal immigration reform advocates to stand on. border with Mexico should be allowed to craft immigration policy. States will be able to make their own laws on how best to combat After all, the perspective of a lawmaker or legislator in New illegal immigration, and these laws could vary greatly from state Hampshire just isn’t suited to this issue, right? In that case, we to state. What is perfectly permissible in, say, California might should give Gulf states unquestioned authority to regulate oil suddenly be illegal in New Mexico. drilling in the United States, since they are the ones closest to To allow such conflict between states erodes the power of OPINION, page 4


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