28 Jun 2010

LA based Samoan says new Arizona immigration law perpetuates discrimination

10:45 am on 28 June 2010

A Samoan who protested against the controversial immigration law the state of Arizona is introducing at the end of this month, says Pacific communties have cause to worry.

Peter Malufau says while the new law allows police to question anyone they suspect of being in the United States illegally, it unfairly targets migrant communities and Hispanics.

He says he's grown up in America and discrimination has been a big part of the migrant experience, even in multi-cultural Los Angeles.

"There's a lot of racial profiling that's going on first, for Hispancis, and African Americans, and Samoans and Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians. What really gets to me is that so many of these immigrants are scared just to live, just to raise families. And that's the kind of family I come from. My family is a family whose living here in the United States, who is trying to just live ... whose trying just to be here freely."

The new law, dubbed SB1070, is expected to come into force on July the 29th.