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Rabbi Speaks Out Regarding Arizona's SB 1070
    Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s decision to sign Arizona SB 1070, the
    “Safe Neighborhood Act,” is misguided at best. It will scapegoat a
    vulnerable population, damage the local economy, and tear the social
    fabric of the state. This law requires law enforcement officials in the
    state of Arizona to investigate someone’s immigration status if there
    is “reasonable suspicion” that the person might be undocumented,
    effectively codifying racial discrimination. I have lived in South
    Florida since the 1950s watching successive groups come to our city,
    seeking refuge. I also remember clearly telling my father outside a
    rally in New York, during which people were describing the atrocities
    being committed against the Jews in Nazi Europe and calling for U.S.
    intervention, that when I grew up, I would do my part to make up for
    all of those that we had lost. It is only when we try to live with and
    work with people of different faiths, races, and ethnic origins that we
    can hope to prevent the horrors of the past.

    Bills such as AZ SB 1070, and even Miami-Dade’s own Secure
    Communities program, do not solve problems; they simply victimize
    those who are already vulnerable. According to SB 1070, someone can
    be arrested for “transporting or harboring” an undocumented
    immigrant. When it becomes illegal for a U.S. citizen to be driving in
    the same car or living in the same house with an undocumented family
    member, we have gone too far. When a young mother, after dropping
    her children off at school in the morning, is taken into custody and
    deported because a Miami police officer has pulled her over due to a
    broken tail light, we have gone too far. When a gardener in the Keys
    is asked by the police for proof of his immigration status while he cuts
    someone’s yard, we have gone too far.

    I am reminded of a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr – “There
    comes a time when silence is betrayal.” We can be silent no longer.
    We must not sit quietly and watch the atrocities of the past be
    repeated.    

    Rabbi Solomon Schiff
    President, South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice
    sfiwj.org