One of the things that the United States prides itself on is the fact that it is a nation of immigrants. This notion is something its citizens embody and celebrate as part of the nation’s heritage and identity.

The vast majority of us, after all, are from somewhere else, another country, another background.

If we truly take pride in the fact that immigrants built this country, then why has the recent trend been to deport millions of immigrants coming to this country who are trying to improve their lives?

One of the most controversial state laws is Alabama’s HB 56 which allows police officers to search and detain a person if the officer has “reasonable suspicions” and believes the person is an undocumented immigrant.

The Alabama law is really unfair to such a large number of people that live in this country. It really is hard to believe that there are laws like this in this day and age. We say we do not support discrimination, but this is exactly what this law encourages.

Many others have also protested against the law, claiming that is promotes racial profiling among the police force. It does, after all, allow law enforcement to pick out people from a crowd and detain them just for looking Latin American.

But that does not make much sense, since there are so many people living in the south that are of Latin American descent but are legal citizens. So, by the nature of this law, these people are surely going to get caught up in the mess that is sure to come with it.

Regardless of who the law will inevitably affect, the U.S. may consider stepping back to reevaluate its actions. For a country that promotes job opportunities and the “American Dream,” should we not also promote a fairer legal system for the immigrants that want to contribute to this country?