In April, when the North Carolina House of Representatives initially approved House Bill 318, Stefanía Arteaga, co-founder of Carolina Migrant Network, told Enlace Latino NC that the measure expands racial profiling.
“Instead of investing in policies that strengthen public safety and trust, HB 318 expands racial profiling, fear, and unnecessary incarceration,” she said.
What Is Racial Profiling?
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), racial profiling is the “discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals as suspects of a crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin.”
Felicia Arriaga, assistant professor at Baruch College, told Enlace Latino NC that racial profiling is a form of interpersonal racism in which a person holds preconceived ideas about someone else, especially in the legal and law enforcement context.
“When the law allows this to happen, we often think of it as institutional or organizational discrimination, which frequently happens with immigration in particular,” Arriaga said.
An Established Policy
Much of Arriaga’s research focuses on broadening these definitions so it is not only about jails or police, but also about the processes and structures of local government that allow racial profiling to occur.
“It’s not as simple as a police officer racially discriminating against you, right? In fact, there is a process or an established policy that allows you to be identified, potentially, and then guides you through all these steps.”
Room for Discriminatory Practices
In the case of HB 318, by expanding cooperation with ICE to include all felonies, the law creates room for discriminatory practices.
This makes discrimination part of the system and not just the result of individual actions.
According to Arriaga, this law shapes how institutions operate, which can generate more systemic discrimination.
“Are they actually changing some of their policies that then disproportionately affect certain groups, right? That’s part of the question here.”
Challenges in Tracking Racial Profiling Data
Arriaga explained that, because of how race is categorized in legal procedures, it is difficult for researchers like her to determine whether the bill will cause an increase in racial discrimination against Latinos.
“I think when it comes to immigrants, when it comes to the Latino population, I think it’s a little harder to say that something is racial profiling. And part of this has to do with how statistics are recorded,” Arriaga said.
Since “Latino” is considered an ethnic category and not a racial one, the conversation about whether this bill increases racial profiling will be much broader.
Additional Risks After the Approval of HB 318
Arriaga mentioned that concern is already visible among the Latino community.
“In general, we’ve seen people already making changes in their lives, spending less time outdoors, less time going to unnecessary things. In addition, at the federal level, there is a lot of fear over the changes,” she said.
“So I think there is a general concern about what we can do at this moment,” she added.
On the other hand, local government organizations and officials who had been more open about their support for immigrants are now reconsidering their stance.
“Agencies that were previously more willing to be progressive on this issue are also being targeted, and I think that is an unfortunate part of the conversation,” Arriaga said.
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Después de la tormenta
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