A State Assembly member wants to introduce a bill that would request people in Wisconsin who are suspected of a crime to prove their legal residence in the United States; if they fail to do so, they would be handed to federal immigration officers.

The bill is being compared to the Arizona immigration law passed last year, but Rep. Don Pridemore, R-Hartford, said his bill is smaller in scope than the Arizona law, according to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Under the bill, law enforcement would have to check if those who are arrested or charged with a crime are legal U.S. citizens based on their “reasonable suspicion.” To prove one’s identity, people can present their passport, birth certificate, immigration documents or other records. If they fail to do so after 48 hours in jail, they would then be turned over to immigration authorities.

But Pridemore’s proposal says that “a law enforcement officer may not consider race, color, or national origin in the enforcement of this section except to the extent permitted by the U.S. and Wisconsin constitutions.”

Senior Paydon Miller, College Democrats of Wisconsin chairman, said that with this bill, immigrants in Wisconsin would be held to different standards and that officers will find it hard to not consider race when asking for proof of legal status.

“(The bill) is going to hold legal Wisconsin citizens up to undue scrutiny,” he said. “It’s going to take away their civil rights and is a hollow attempt to crack down on illegal
immigration.”

Also, under the bill, private citizens would be able to sue cities and counties if they believe that they were not enforcing the immigration law properly. If proved that they were not complying with the law, cities and counties would have to pay fines of $500 a day.

Student Senator Ben Krall said that the idea that a police officer can demand proof of citizenship without prior cause is absurd.

“The bill says an officer ‘must determine’ if someone might potentially be an illegal immigrant, without any sort of explicit statement of how one would determine that,” he said.

Krall also said this bill will serve only for Pridemore and a few other state representatives in conservative districts to have something to campaign with in 2012. Krall said he believes Pridemore is not trying to write a racist or discriminatory law; but if passed, the bill “will do nothing beyond making Wisconsin seem like a borderline racist state.”

UW-Eau Claire College Republicans’ Treasurer Jacob Kampen, however, said the bill doesn’t lead to racial profiling and racial discrimination towards residents in Wisconsin.

“(The bill) even goes a step further than the original Arizona legislation by specifically prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, or national origin,” he said. “And it only applies to persons who are arrested or charged with a crime, so this will not apply to the average innocent person on the street.”

Pridemore is still looking for co-sponsors for the bill in the Assembly so he can introduce it.

Editor’s note: Rep. Don Pridemore was unable to be reached for a phone interview up to the publication date.