Minnesota's not immune to the harm of Arizona's immigration law

A new law in Arizona requires law enforcement officials to investigate someone's immigration status if there is "reasonable suspicion" he or she might be undocumented.

The majority of Latinos who live in Minnesota are U.S. citizens, but I think people here in Willmar would be surprised to learn how many in our community lack the proper documents.

The Arizona law faces challenges to its legality and constitutionality. But I worry about what it will do to communities across the nation. I believe it will increase fear, distrust and hate between the immigrant community and the dominant community -- not only in Arizona, but here in Willmar and other places.

Already I have seen the fear. Legal citizens have told me they plan to avoid Arizona. They worry such laws might spread across the country. "Don't people realize the good we bring to our communities?" they ask. "Maybe we should just take our labor and our money and leave."

What would that do to our local economies?

I worry that the Arizona law will make some people feel they have the right to harass and discriminate against my Latino brothers and sisters more than they already do. We don't like to admit that this kind of thing goes on in our communities, but it does.

I have Latino friends who, when paying by check at a local business, have been scrutinized more carefully than the white customer in line in front of them.

Once, after ordering in English, members of a bilingual family were sitting in a restaurant and talking among themselves in Spanish. Other customers interrupted their family time to tell them they should be speaking English.

I have heard Latinos wonder whether the reason they didn't get hired for a particular job was that they were Latino. Maybe the company was afraid of hiring an "illegal" so it just steered clear of Latinos altogether.

Among the Latino community there is already mistrust -- fair or not -- toward local law enforcement. What happens when a real crime is committed and no one wants to talk to police because they might ask for documents?

Our immigration system is broken. Most people would agree on that. But the way to fix it is not to cause more fear. It is not to try and round up all the undocumented immigrants in our midst. Nor is it to raise suspicion and mistrust among neighbors.

For the sake of our communities, our economy and the principles our country was founded on, we need our federal government to step up and work with us for real immigration reform.

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Naomi Mahler is pastor at Paz y Esperanza Lutheran Church in Willmar.

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