Translated from Los Tiempos de Nueva California, dated June 17, 1840:

Arizona Governor Don Fernando d’Ibaraa y Figueora y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza — in response to the wave of illegal immigration coming from the United States — signed into law a controversial bill that will allow Mexican authorities to check the documentation of foreign workers residing in the territory and arrest those who are without such documents.

“We sympathize with Americans who come to our country to escape the poverty of their cities,” the governor said, “and we certainly appreciate their work on our farms, haciendas, and gardens — taking the jobs that no Mexicans want. But they must do so legally.

“But rest assured,” the governor concluded, “we will not racially profile gringos before we arrest them.”

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