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Louisiana teachers' union concerned about educators' future; Supreme Court hears arguments in Trump immunity case; Court issues restraining order against fracking waste-storage facility; Landmark NE agreement takes a proactive approach to CO2 pipeline risks.

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Speaker Johnson accuses demonstrating students of getting support from Hamas. TikTok says it'll challenge the ban. And the Supreme Court dives into the gray area between abortion and pregnancy healthcare, and into former President Trump's broad immunity claims

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The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken, and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

Business Leader: Immigration Bill Threatens “Police State”

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010   

PHOENIX - A proposed toughening of Arizona state laws targeting undocumented immigrants is drawing fire from a Phoenix steel plant owner. Sheridan Bailey says mandating that police stop and question someone's immigration status based only on "reasonable suspicion" sounds to him like a police state.

"Maybe, to be fair they need - even though I'm blond and fair-skinned - they need to stop me, as well as a family that is driving down the street in a little Corolla, that doesn't dress the same way. It's an invitation to racial profiling."

Bailey is also president of Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform.

The bill's sponsor, Mesa Senator Russell Pearce, says the changes are vital to stopping murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking and violence along the border. The measure is awaiting debate in the Arizona House after being passed by the Senate.

The bill would make every city, county and state employee responsible for reporting anyone they suspect may be in the country illegally.

Bailey says such a policy threatens our basic right to go about our lives and business without fear of government harassment.

"The bill threatens us because it turns neighbor against neighbor, schoolteacher against children. An informant network is what they’re creating here."

He says the bill would likely result in more wrongful arrests of U.S. citizens, such as a Scottsdale manager who was arrested last week.

"When they finally determined that she was a citizen and released her, you know: 'Well, what was your grounds for arresting me in the first place?' Well, she was brown-skinned, Hispanic origin and at the wrong place at the wrong time. And the reply was: 'This is just how police operations go.'"

Bailey says the bill will make Arizonans less safe by requiring local police to make immigration enforcement a priority over dangerous, violent crimes such as murders, rapes and robberies.


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