On May 25, 2011 the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC). filed a class action lawsuit challenging a discriminatory Indiana law inspired by Arizona’s notorious SB 1070. According to the lawsuit, the law unlawfully authorizes police to make warrantless arrests of individuals based on assumed immigration status and criminalizes the mere use or acceptance of the commonly used consular ID card. The groups charged that the law would lead to racial profiling and trample upon the rights of all Indiana residents in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

In 2011 South Carolina passed SB 20, a law modeled after Arizona’s notorious SB 1070. The law required police to demand “papers” demonstrating citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops based on “reasonable suspicion” that a person lacks legal status. It also criminalized South Carolinians for everyday interactions with undocumented individuals, such as driving someone to church, or renting a room to a friend.

The ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and ACLU of Nebraska filed a federal lawsuit in July 2010 in U.S. District Court on behalf of landlords, tenants and employers in Fremont, Nebraska challenging a discriminatory law that requires prospective renters to provide the Fremont Police Department with information about their citizenship or immigration status prior to renting any home.

Over the last two years since the “show me your papers” provision of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB 1070 went into effect, the ACLU has documented numerous cases of racial profiling and illegal detentions by law enforcement officials throughout the state. In Tucson alone, the ACLU has filed several “Notices of Claim” alleging that law enforcement officers regularly engage in racial profiling and illegal detention as a result of applying the law.