It was only a matter of time.

In case you missed it last week, the Arizona legislature has passed what is perhaps the harshest anti-immigrant state legislation in the last half-century.

Senate Bill 1070, if signed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer this week, would essentially require local law enforcement throughout Arizona to investigate the immigration status of every person they come across whom they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe is in the country unlawfully (check the details at the Arizona Senate website).

Translation: racial profiling en masse throughout Arizona.

Undocumented immigrants, green card-holders or U.S. citizens who appear to be "foreign" could find themselves facing a serious increase in police attention and harassment soon.

The dangers to public safety and civil rights that local enforcement of immigration law poses is something the NYCLU has been banging. the drum about. for years.

This bill, much of which is all kinds of unconstitutional, is drawing the ire of immigrant groups, civil rights organizations, public safety and law enforcement experts, lawyers, advocates and media from across the country, with some calls for a tourism boycott of Arizona if the bill becomes law. And of course, our brothers and sisters at the ACLU of Arizona have been fighting this the whole way.

But don’t wait until then to take action. Give Gov. Brewer’s office a call at (602) 542-4331 or toll-free at (800) 253-0883 or contact her via the Governor’s website and urge her to veto SB 1070 this week.

Bottom line, as always: We desperately need Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that ends local enforcement of immigration law and protects everybody’s rights and liberties.

Until that happens, we’re going to see more and more SB 1070s pop up in states and localities across the country. Reform can’t come soon enough.