A showdown over immigration

By Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
Ashley Cooper is not an illegal immigrant. She's not Hispanic.

Yet the 22-year-old who graduated recently from Northern Arizona University spends her weekends in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods in Flagstaff, Ariz., raising money to battle the state's new immigration law. She and other volunteers pass collection cups around soccer matches, neighborhood festivals and quinceañeras— traditional Hispanic coming-of-age parties for girls turning 15.

"I've never been more of a churchgoer in my life than now," Cooper, a volunteer with the Repeal Coalition, a group trying to repeal the state's immigration law, says of her fundraising efforts.

Cooper and others who feel strongly about Arizona's immigration enforcement law are preparing for what could be an onslaught of litigation starting July 29, when the law is scheduled to go into effect. It would require police officers to question the immigration status of suspects stopped for another offense if there's a "reasonable suspicion" they are in the country illegally.

Continue reading