I believe the drafters of the Arizona law meant “lawful contact” to mean interactions that would have happened anyway. But now they’re making it more explicit. From Arizona Republic:
The Arizona House approved several new changes to Arizona’s new immigration law. The changes still need final approval from the Senate before being passed along to the governor. If Gov. Jan Brewer supports them, they would go into effect at the same time the new law would.
The phrase “lawful contact” would be changed to “lawful stop, detention or arrest” to clarify that an officer would not need to question a crime victim or witness about their legal status.
Critics can take credit for getting this clarification. Will they now support the law?