Profit Motive Underlies Outbreak Of Immigration Bills

July 29 marked the one-year anniversary of Arizona's controversial immigration law, a year that has seen similar anti-immigrant bills emerge across the country. Thanks to the release of over 800 pieces of "model legislation" by the Center for Media and Democracy, we can now pinpoint the source of the outbreak to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a bill factory for legislation that benefits the bottom line of its corporate members. While it has been reported that more immigrants behind bars means more income for ALEC member Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), less discussed has been how immigrant detention benefits commercial bail-bond agencies, an industry represented in ALEC through the American Bail Coalition.

Immigrant Detention and For-Profit Criminal Justice

The ALEC "No Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants Act" requires that state law enforcement officers enforce complex federal immigration law, gives private citizens the right to sue police or sheriff's departments if they do not think the law is being enforced (regardless of whether law enforcement had been prioritizing more important issues like investigating violent crimes), makes presence on state soil without federal immigration status a criminal offense, and requires that employers use the flawed e-Verify system for hiring employees. This ALEC bill legalizes racial profiling and became Arizona's SB1070.

Countless immigrant families that have been torn apart by the law. "Children don't know what to do without their parents," 10-year-old Catherine Figueroa told a Congressional panel in 2010; Figeuroa's mother and father were arrested by Arizona state law enforcement on immigration charges.

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