Civic Engagement Network Says "Not in my State!"
After Arizona passed SB 1070, a law that encourages racial profiling and targets Latinos, many states have proposed similar laws. Sign our petitions and tell your legislators that you oppose bringing discriminatory laws to your state.
Members of LatinoJustice PRLDEF’s youth civic engagement network are taking a stand and voicing their opposition to unconstitutional anti-immigrant laws like Arizona’s SB1070, through the “Not in my state!” campaign.
The network created the campaign to keep laws that encourage racial profiling and target Latinos out of members’ home states.
“Not in my state!” targets legislators in South Carolina, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Maryland. The network is aiming to gather over a thousand signed petitions in each of the states to send to the sponsors of discriminatory laws. Members have also created facebook pages for each state, and now have over 800 fans for keeping SB 1070 out of their communities.
Legislative proposals in these states aim to deprive Latinos of medical, educational, nutritional, and other benefits critical to their survival. These laws target Latinos regardless of their status, and will make them victims of an increased level of discrimination.
The network is also supporting LatinoJustice PRLDEF’s friends of the court brief against SB 1070 in Arizona. The brief asks the federal courts to stop the law’s implementation and argues that the new law will result in Latino immigrants, regardless of status, being deprived of essential benefits, impacting their day-to-day lives.
The Petition
We demand that our state legislators oppose anti-immigrant, anti-Latino laws. We oppose any laws that mirror Arizona’s horrendous SB 1070, an attempt to push Latino families out of that state.
We vow to oppose any legislation similar to SB 1070, for the following reasons:
- These laws are unconstitutional: they subject massive numbers of people—both citizens and non-citizens— to racial profiling, improper investigations and detention.
- These laws allow people to assume that all undocumented immigrants are criminals and therefore and deny immigrants access to essential benefits that they are entitled to. They create second-class citizens of those who are perceived to be foreign and undocumented.
- These laws legitimize and foster discrimination against Latinos, which in turn endangers public safety.
We will not allow such laws to be passed in our state.
We will urge our lawmakers to oppose these laws because they deny immigrants access to essential benefits to which they are entitled, foster discriminatory animus against and harassment of Latinos, compromise the physical well-being of many in the Latino community, and lead to an increase in civil rights violations against all Latinos.
Click on the link to your state to sign a petition:
Don't see your state listed? Email latinojustice@latinojustice.org and tell us why we should create a petition for your state.