Immigration Laws in the U.S.
The “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” is a law that was introduced in the state of Arizona in 2010. This law is similar to the existing federal (1) legislation that requires all aliens, or U.S. non-citizens, over 14 years old, who stay in the U.S. for more than 30 days, to register with the U.S. government. An (2) alien must also carry his/her registration documents with him/her at all times. In addition to the existing federal law, Arizona made it a requirement that its state’s law enforcement officers make an attempt to identify an individual’s immigration status during detention, arrest, or a “lawful contact”. The term “lawful contact” refers to an officer’s obligation to approach someone that he or she believes is an illegal immigrant.
The “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act”, also known as Arizona Senate Bill (SB) 1070, has caused national and international (3) controversy on the topic of immigration, and especially illegal immigration from south of the U.S. border. Opponents believe that the law forces officers to racially profile people, or judge them based on whether or not they look Latino. Challengers of this law want to (4) ban it, because they believe it forces policemen and policewomen to racially discriminate against people who are not from a European or African background. However, advocates of the law deny that it allows the use of race as the exclusive basis for investigating immigration status.
The law has since been modified with the goal of addressing some of the concerns of the opponents. However, despite the protests in opposition to the law from around the country, polling has shown that there is an overall support for the law in Arizona and in other states. And passage of the modified version of the law has (5) provoked other states to consider implementing similar immigration laws.
The word “controversy”, bolded after the (3) in paragraph 2, can best be defined as
