U.S. v. Arizona: Obama administration challenges immigration law
posted by Victor Manuel Ramos on July, 6 2010

Isabel Abalos, right, protests outside the state capitol before Arizona lawmakers approved a sweeping immigration bill Monday, April 19, 2010, in Phoenix. The bill is intended to ramp up law enforcement efforts even as critics complained it could lead to racial profiling and other abuse. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Michael Chow)

 

As had been widely expected, the U.S. Department of Justice took action against the Arizona SB1070 law that turned illegal immigration into a criminal offense and gave local law enforcement officials the authority to question people about their immigration status.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, the administration seeks to declare invalid and stop the enforcement of the law, saying it is the federal government that has the authority to rule on immigration matters.

The law –which is set to go into effect on July 29– has been highly controversial because immigrant and civil rights advocates say it opens the door to ethnic profiling in the state as local police departments find themselves empowered to request citizenship or legal residency proof of people who look like immigrants. However, polls show that most Americans are supportive of Arizona’s attempt at an immigration crackdown.

But the action filed is largely based on the argument that the Arizona law interferes with the federal government’s authority and is, therefore, unconstitutional. The profiling concern is only mentioned in passing.

“The Constitution and federal law do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country,” reads the Department of Justice’s request for a preliminary injunction against the Arizona law. “Although a state may adopt regulations that have an indirect or incidental effect on aliens, a state may not establish its own immigration policy or enforce state laws in a manner that interferes with federal immigration law.”

In its challenge, the U.S. government cites provisions of the SB1070 law involving the “mandatory alien inspection” imposed on law enforcement; the requirement that makes it a new criminal offense for immigrants in the state not to carry their alien registration cards; sanctions against alien smuggling that could involve the transportation of undocumented immigrants and making it a misdemeanor to work illegally in the state – among other enforcement-driven aspects of the law.

The filing also makes the case that the federal government’s priority is to go after aliens who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety, rather than every immigrant who crosses the border or stays in the country illegally. In enforcing immigration law, says the Department of Justice, Arizona is also unlawfully affecting the country’s foreign policy.

“Arizona has predictably provoked the ire of those foreign nations whose citizens are being targeted for detention and criminalization – and has thereby damaged the United States’ broader set of diplomatic relations with those same nations,” the filing says.

There has already been a string of comments and reactions from immigrant advocacy groups. Most of those who have been calling for immigration reform seemed to side with the administration, saying it was about time that someone stopped Arizona’s runaway approach.

“We view the challenge to Arizona’s SB1070 as an important first step in our nation’s ongoing struggle to defeat racism and intolerance,” said Angelica Salas, Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). “The toughest anti-immigrant law in the land goes beyond codifying racial profiling of immigrants and people of color; it endangers the rights of every American.”

The activist organization Immigration Works USA issued a statement saying that while it agreed that SB1070 “is an abomination” the group is more concerned with the possible long term effect of the legal fight.

“The nation is already split down the middle on the Arizona law – so deeply divided that the two sides can no longer hear or understand each other. And an administration lawsuit will only fan the flames of that debate,” said ImmigrationWorks president Tamar Jacoby.

On the other side of the immigration spectrum, Conservatives were complaining about the Obama administration’s intervention, saying that Arizona is acting because the federal government has failed to enforce immigration laws.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, engaged in a political fight with Conservative Rick Scott for the Republican nomination for governor in the state, criticized the lawsuit. He and Scott have both expressed support for the adoption of a similar law in the state of Florida.

He said “the Obama Administration wrongly chose to subvert the will of the people of Arizona” by filing the lawsuit. “Instead of challenging the Arizona law, the Obama Administration’s time would be better spent by providing more resources and securing our Southern border. If the Federal government were to do more to enforce existing immigration laws, states like Arizona and Florida would not have to compensate for its shortcomings.”

Read more:  Orlando Sentinel