Many gay San Diego area residents are expressing opposition to Arizona’s recent Senate Bill 1070, which requires police to determine whether a person is in the U.S. illegally.

Protests and boycotts ensued after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, on April 23, signed the bill, which forces immigrants to carry alien registration documents at all times and provides police with the authority to prosecute and deport anyone without them. The law also pursues illegal immigrant day laborers and those who knowingly transport them.

While Arizona created the bill, slated to take effect this August, to curb the problem of illegal aliens and drug cartels, its critics believe it gives too much authority to officers, will cause racial profiling and targets Hispanic individuals. The law is slated to take effect on July 29, 2010.

“I understand that it can eliminate drug trafficking and illegal immigrants, but it’s not the right way of going about this,” Escondido resident and GLBT community member Ryan Bunnell said. “It has good effects, but it does not in any way outweigh the moral implications.”

To counter the criticism, the Republican governor said she would require officers to receive additional training to ensure they enforce the law judiciously.

“This training will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the United States,” she said after signing the bill.

Prior to the bill being passed, officials were allowed to question individuals’ immigration status if they were suspected of a crime.

Many people in the San Diego area oppose the law, as some feel it infringes on basic rights and codifies prejudice by encouraging a guessing game of who is or is not a citizen.

“I understand that it can eliminate drug trafficking and illegal immigrants, but it’s not the right way of going about this,” Escondido resident Ryan Bunnell said. “It has good effects, but it does not in any way outweigh the moral implications.”

Brewer said individuals will have to trust law enforcement to enforce the bill without profiling.

“Racial profiling is illegal,” Brewer said. “It is illegal in America, and it’s certainly illegal in Arizona.”

However, some feel the bill will require officers to profile.

“The police can question someone’s resident status if they have reasonable suspicion,” one GLBT San Diego resident said. “But what is reasonable suspicion? They passed an amendment to the bill saying they can’t judge based on race, color or national origin, but how can you stop police officers from doing [it] in the field? What do they use? Do they determine by accents? There’s really no way to pick someone out in a crowd without some prejudice.”

“I’m against Arizona’s new immigration law because I personally don’t trust that law enforcement will be able to enforce the law without engaging in racial profiling,” Escondido resident and GLBT community member Erin Dummer said. “Despite whatever provisions exist in the law against this type of profiling, I believe it will happen, and that Arizona’s law is an intimidation to Latino American citizens. One would hope that if Arizona wanted to come down hard on illegal immigration, an action that I’m not even convinced should be a priority, that all possible avenues for punishing the businesses and individuals that provide the jobs that illegal immigrants are seeking, would be pursued first.”

State laws relating to immigration have increased in recent years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In 2007, more than 1,500 bills were introduced pertaining to immigration, and in 2008, 1,305 were proposed. About 1,500 were considered in 2009.

“I don’t like it, In general I don’t support it. It doesn’t seem impossible to enforce without generalizing people’s looks and skin color, and that seems dumb. I think statistically, the crime rate on the Arizona border has dropped over 10 years so the immigration issue is not causing more violence. Even if it was I don’t favor of a law that makes no sense,” Eric Froman, bisexual resident of North Park said.

While some support the bill as a measure to reduce crime, they feel it takes the wrong approach.

“I would support it if they had a better solution to the racial profiling,” Kinda Huam of Hillcrest said. “I could see where people feel like it would be safer with the law, as the drug cartels and gangs is a big problem, but they still need to think of a better way to not just go after the next Mexican that they see.”

Although it is customary for officers to look at one’s documents in other countries, Arizona is the first state in the U.S. to enact a law making it a misdemeanor to not carry immigration papers.

“Making people carry papers like that just reminds me of a Nazi occupied Germany,” Jonathan Osburn, GLBT resident in Hillcrest said. “They just have to have ‘reasonable suspicion’ to ask someone for papers. I’m all for kicking out the illegal people here, but this bill poses a much bigger threat to our national rights. My worry is that if this law becomes acceptable, it is the first step in a major stripping of personal rights for all citizens.”