Issues: Immigration

April 28, 2010 5:58 pm

Posted by Michael Johnson

With the budget talks at a stalemate, several Senate and Assembly Democrats took time to weigh in on the biggest national story – the Arizona Legislature’s controversial immigration enforcement bill. Senators Jose Peralta and Jose Serrano publicly denounced the new plan today. They say it would promote racial profiling. And Senator Peralta went a step further, calling the decision to sign the bill by the Arizona Governor a slap in the face of the federal government.

The Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday threatened to fight Arizona's tough new immigration law with civil disobedience -- and welcomed the prospect of getting arrested in the process.

Sharpton compared himself to the Freedom Riders of the 1960s, who rode interstate buses in mixed-race groups to protest racial segregation, saying he and his allies would become "Freedom Walkers," striding through the streets of Arizona without identification to show their opposition to the law.

"We will walk down the streets with no identification and submit ourselves to arrest,"