Do Arizonans secretly oppose the state's immigration law?

If ABC&#039;s show &quot;Primetime: What Would You Do?&quot; is any measure, Tucson residents do not exhibit anti-immigration sentiment.

(Image credit: Screen shot/ Hulu)

last updated 8 January 2015

The video: On ABC's "Primetime: What Would You Do?" actors play out a scene with moral or ethical implications to see how ordinary citizens will react. Last week, the show journeyed to Arizona, home to the country's toughest — and most controversial — immigration law. Actors posing as a Hispanic civilian and an off-duty security guard repeatedly enacted a scene at a Tucson restaurant, the "guard" aggressively pestering the Hispanic man for his identification papers. The restaurant's customers consistently intervened, said a publicist for the show: Over a two-day shoot, "we never once encountered someone who defended the security guard's point of view." The state's immigration law has garnered popular support in polls, but will Arizonans back it in practice?

The reaction: "It's a TV show, not a scientific study," says Dan Amira in New York, "but this does tell us something about attitudes in Arizona, or at least in Tucson, toward the immigration debate." The citizens' bold actions demonstrate that, "at the very least, anti-immigrant sentiment hasn't reached a point where it's socially acceptable to proclaim your support for racial profiling in public." But the speaker of the state House, Kirk Adams, says that "What Would You Do" misled viewers by implying that a police officer has the power to deport anyone who looks Latino. In a press release, as quoted by The Arizona Republic, he blasted ABC for airing "a fake news story...." Watch the revealing video: