U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton has issued a preliminary injunction blocking key portions of the Arizona immigration law scheduled to take effect tomorrow.
The Associated Press reports that the law will take effect, "but without many of the provisions that angered opponents -- including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws. The judge also put on hold a part of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places."
Before the judge's ruling, The Arizona Republic reported that uniformity among police authorities on enforcement was lacking.
Supporters of the law, SB 1070, the newspaper reports had hoped it would help uniformity among the various counties on enforcement. "But a survey of Arizona police agencies indicates there is anything but a uniform approach," The Republic reports. The law requires police officers, during the enforcement of other laws, to question a person's immigration status if the officers have a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally. The law also makes it a crime for immigrants not to carry immigration documents. But Judge Bolton's ruling, which came after hearings on three of the seven federal lawsuits challenging the law, puts a halt, for now, on those portions of the law, The Republic reported. In her ruling, Judge Bolton said the Department of Justice "was likely, but not certain, to prevail on those points [that it is better to place a preliminary injunction on a law likely to be judged later as pre-empted by federal law, among others] at a later trial in federal court, The New York Times reported. It also noted that the judge had made "no ruling on the six other suits that also challenged the law."
Beyond the legal challenges, the law has attracted widespread criticism. The Times recently editorialized, that the law is constitutionally suspect because "Only the federal government can set or enforce immigration policy."
Beyond watching a video of training standards, The Republic noted that police departments across the states are taking varying approaches. The Washington Post reported that "the hardest-line approach is expected in the Phoenix area, where Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans his 17th crime and immigration sweep."
The Republic, after citing some of the varying enforcement tactics, concluded that the approaches "are a reflection of the confusion that persists among agencies tasked with enforcing the law ...."
Mark Spencer, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, blasted the law, noting that it would add to the burden of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"In light of the state statute, you have policy that appears to be designed to be costly, invasive or intrusive to citizens and burdensome to ICE," he said. "You take those three ingredients, and you have a policy that appears designed to undermine the rule of law."
The newspapers also noted that opponents of the law are planning protests within the state. Liz Hourican of CodePink told The Post that the group plans to "block the driveway for immigration officers in downtown Phoenix."
Recently Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka discussed the immigration system and how it affects the economy and needs to be reformed. Secretary Solis and Trumka agreed that a path for immigrants to become documented needs to be found. Video of that discussion is available here.
For additional analysis of the Arizona law, see video here of a panel discussion on the topic from the 2010 ACS National Convention. Following that panel discussion, MALDEF leader Thomas A. Saenz talked with ACSblog about immigration reform. His interview is available here.
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