On Feb. 18, at 10 a.m., thousands of people from Madison, Milwaukee and its surrounding communities will gather outside the state capitol building to protest two pieces of legislation.
Senate Bill 533 and Assembly Bill 450 both would impact immigrants.

AB 450 would prevent towns, cities and counties from creating ordinances that would prohibit an employee from sharing the immigration status of anyone lawfully detained or arrested. This would effectively give police officers the role of immigration officer, as well as authorizing “…certain elective officeholders to commence an enforcement action.”

SB 533 would prohibit towns and counties from issuing photo identification for any purpose other than the identification of its employees. The bill would require that any photo IDs have printed on them that they are not to be used for voting purposes or for requesting public assistance benefits.

The march is reminiscent of one that occurred in 2006, when thousands of demonstrators marched in Milwaukee in opposition to anti-immigration legislation sponsored by Republican congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. House Resolution 4437 would have made felons of all undocumented immigrants.

These pieces of legislation reflect the mood toward immigrants held by many in this country, not least of which is thanks to the rhetoric being spouted by Republicans currently campaigning for the Presidency.

Voter suppression laws and the criminalization of being Latino are not new faces of anti-immigration sentiment, but they have certainly been reinvigorated by that rhetoric.

Instead of drafting laws that would unfairly and disproportionately target immigrants and people of color in an attempt to limit their abilities to vote and access public assistance, perhaps we should take a closer look at why immigrants are coming here at all. If we let our fears do the voting, our laws will fail to reflect our core values of liberty and equality.

The Clarion staff hopes that many of our readers, fellow students and faculty members will attend the demonstration in support of our Latino friends, colleagues, and family members.