This is the same Arizona Congressman who called for a boycott of his own state over SB 1070.
(CNS News) — Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said on Tuesday that Arizona’s immigration-enforcement law will cause people to be “profiled” in that state just as Trayvon Martin was profiled in Florida.
Martin, a 17-year-old African Americcan, was allegedly shot dead by Hispanic neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Florida in February, a case that has inflamed racial sensitivities.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Reps. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tex.), and Grijalva talked about the Supreme Court taking up Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law (SB 1070). A reporter asked if it was “fair” for Clyburn and Jackson-Lee to have invoked the memory of Martin at the event.
Rep. Grijalva responded, “I think profiling is a fair issue. At the heart of one of the constitutionality [arguments] is the requirement of local police to do a profiling assessment as to whether there is reasonable suspicion this person might be undocumented — illegal or not.”
“So let’s extend that premise that if a young African American male walking in the neighborhood is profiled as potentially a criminal,” he said. “So yeah, the link is between when you begin to profile people based on how they look and you begin to profile people based on that criteria, only the consequences are not ever good.”