Arizona SB 1070

meeting with President Barack Obama in June 2010 in the wake of SB 1070, to discuss immigration and border security issues. and to have registration documents in their possession at all times. The Arizona Act additionally makes it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying the required documents,

Critics of the legislation say it encourages racial profiling, while supporters say the law prohibits the use of race as the sole basis for investigating immigration status. It was scheduled to go into effect on July 29, 2010, ninety days after the end of the legislative session. Legal challenges over its constitutionality and compliance with civil rights law were filed, including one by the United States Department of Justice, that also asked for an injunction against enforcement of the law. and obligates police to make an attempt, when practicable during a "lawful stop, detention or arrest", to determine a person's immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an illegal alien. Any person arrested cannot be released without confirmation of the person's legal immigration status by the federal government pursuant to § 1373(c) of Title 8 of the United States Code. (SB 1070 required a minimum fine of $500 for a first violation, and for a second violation a minimum $1,000 fine and a maximum jail sentence of 6 months). A person is "presumed to not be an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States" if he or she presents any of the following four forms of identification: a valid Arizona driver license; a valid Arizona nonoperating identification license; a valid tribal enrollment card or other tribal identification; or any valid federal, state, or local government-issued identification, if the issuer requires proof of legal presence in the United States as a condition of issuance. The new text also states that police may only investigate immigration status incident to a "lawful stop, detention, or arrest", lowers the original fine from a minimum of $500 to a maximum of $100, a figure that has increased fivefold since 1990. By the late 1990s, Tucson Border Patrol Sector had become the location for the most number of arrests by the United States Border Patrol. Perception bias leads many on both sides of the debate to reject, not recognize, or rationalize crime rate statistics. Measures similar to SB 1070 had been passed by the legislature in 2006 and 2008, only to be vetoed by Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano. There is a similar history of referenda, such as the Arizona Proposition 200 (2004) that have sought to restrict illegal immigrants' use of social services. The 'attrition through enforcement' doctrine is one that think tanks such as the Center for Immigration Studies have been supporting for several years. State residents were also frustrated by the lack of federal progress on immigration, Much of the drafting of the bill was done by Kris Kobach, and a figure long associated with the Federation for American Immigration Reform who had written immigration-related bills in many other parts of the country.

The proposed bill reached the Arizona legislature in January 2010 and quickly gained 36 cosponsors.

The killing of 58-year-old Robert Krentz and his dog, shot on March 27, 2010, while doing fence work on his large ranch roughly from the Mexican border, gave a tangible public face to fears about immigration-related crime. For a while, there was talk of naming the law after Krentz. Some state legislators (both for and against the law) believe, however, that the impact of the Krentz killing has been overstated as a factor in the bill's passing. The revised measure then passed the State Senate on April 19 by a 17–11 vote that also closely followed party lines,

Once a bill passes, the governor has five days to make a decision to sign, veto, or let it pass unsigned. The question then became whether or not Governor Brewer would sign the bill into law, as she had remained silent on the measure while weighing the consequences. These preceding political moves, along with an upcoming tough Republican Party primary in the 2010 Arizona gubernatorial election from other conservative opponents supporting the bill, were all considered major factors in her decision. The Mexican Senate urged the governor to veto the measure Brewer's staff said that she was considering the legal issues, the impact on the state's business, and the feelings of the citizens in coming to her decision. Against concerns that the measure would promote racial profiling, Brewer stated that no such behavior would be tolerated: "We must enforce the law evenly, and without regard to skin color, accent or social status." She vowed to ensure that police forces had proper training relative to the law and civil rights Ultimately, she said, "We have to trust our law enforcement.")

Sponsor Pearce called the bill's signing "a good day for America." Nevertheless, those voting on it would be surprised by the reaction it would gain. State Representative Michele Reagan reflected three months later: "The majority of us who voted yes on that bill, myself included, did not expect or encourage an outcry from the public. The majority of us just voted for it because we thought we could try to fix the problem. Nobody envisioned boycotts. Nobody anticipated the emotion, the prayer vigils. The attitude was: These are the laws, let's start following them." State Representative Kyrsten Sinema, the assistant House minority leader who tried to stop the bill and voted against it, similarly reflected: "I knew it would be bad, but no one thought it would be this big. No one."

Reaction

Opinion polls

A Rasmussen Reports poll done nationally around the time of the signing indicated that 60 percent of Americans were in favor of and 31 percent opposed to legislation that allows local police to "stop and verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant." A national Gallup Poll found that more than three-quarters of Americans had heard about the law, and of those who had, 51 percent were in favor of it against 39 percent opposed. An Angus Reid Public Opinion poll indicated that 71 percent of Americans said they supported the notion of requiring their own police to determine people's status if there was "reasonable suspicion" the people were illegal immigrants, and arresting those people if they could not prove they were legally in the United States. A nationwide New York Times/CBS News poll found similar results to the others, with 51 percent of respondents saying the Arizona law was "about right" in its approach to the problem of illegal immigration, 36 percent saying it went too far, and 9 percent saying it did not go far enough. Another CBS News poll, conducted a month after the signing, showed 52 percent seeing the law as about right, 28 percent thinking it goes too far, and 17 percent thinking it does not go far enough. A 57 percent majority thought that the federal government should be responsible for determining immigration law. Experts caution that in general, polling has difficulty reflecting complex immigration issues and law. Rasmussen also found that Brewer's approval ratings as governor had shot up, going from 40 percent of likely voters before the signing to 56 percent after, and that her margin over prospective Democratic gubernatorial opponent, State Attorney General Terry Goddard (who opposes the law) had widened. A poll done by Arizona State University researchers found that 81 percent of registered Latino voters in the state opposed SB 1070.

Public officials

United States

In the United States, supporters and opponents of the bill have roughly followed party lines, with most Democrats opposing the bill and most Republicans supporting it.

The bill was criticized by President Barack Obama who called it "misguided" and said it would "undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe."

Two senior and one mid-level federal public officials criticized the Act before reading it. Holder drew fire from proponents of the law after he acknowledged that he had not read the statute. Michael Posner, the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, brought up the law in discussions with a Chinese delegation to illustrate human rights areas the U.S. needed to improve on. This led McCain and fellow senator from Arizona Jon Kyl to strongly object to any possibly implied comparison of the law to human rights abuses in China. The admissions by Napolitano and Holder that they had not yet read the law became an enduring criticism of the reaction against the law. In reaction to the question, President Obama told a group of Republican senators that he had in fact read the law.

Senior Democratic U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg have criticized the law, with Bloomberg stating that it sends exactly the wrong message to international companies and travelers. Republican Representative Gary Miller, from California's 42nd congressional district, called her remarks "an outrageous accusation [and a] red herring. [She's] trying to change the debate from what the law says." These include former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and campaigning U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, Some analysts have stated that Republican support for the law gives short-term political benefits by energizing their base and independents, but longer term carries the potential of alienating the growing Hispanic population from the party. The issue played a role in several Republican primary contests during the 2010 congressional election season.

One Arizona Democrat who defended some of the motivation behind the bill was Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who said her constituents were "sick and tired" of the federal government failing to protect the border, that the current situation was "completely unacceptable", and that the legislation was a "clear calling that the federal government needs to do a better job". Her opposition to the law became one of the issues in her 2010 re-election campaign, in which she narrowly prevailed over her Republican opponent, who supported it.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton included the dispute over SB 1070 in an August 2010 report to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as an example to other countries of how fractious issues can be resolved under the rule of law. Governor Brewer demanded that the reference to the law be removed from the report, seeing its inclusion as implying that the law was a violation of human rights and saying that any notion of submitting U.S. laws to U.N. review was "internationalism run amok". Calderón repeated his criticism during a subsequent state visit to the White House.

The measure was also strongly criticized by Mexican health minister José Ángel Córdova, former education minister Josefina Vázquez Mota, and Governor of Baja California José Guadalupe Osuna Millán, with Osuna saying it "could disrupt the indispensable economic, political and cultural exchanges of the entire border region."

In response to these comments, Chris Hawley of USA Today said that "Mexico has a law that is no different from Arizona's", referring to legislation which gives local police forces the power to check documents of people suspected of being in the country illegally. Immigration and human rights activists have also noted that Mexican authorities frequently engage in racial profiling, harassment, and shakedowns against migrants from Central America. The governors of the six Mexican states belonging to the conference vowed to boycott it in protest of the law, saying SB 1070 is "based on ethnic and cultural prejudice contrary to fundamental rights," and Brewer said in response that she was canceling the gathering.

Arizona law enforcement

Arizona's law enforcement groups have been split on the bill,

The Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police criticized the legislation, calling the provisions of the bill "problematic" and expressing that it will negatively affect the ability of law enforcement agencies across the state to fulfill their many responsibilities in a timely manner. Additionally, some officers have repeated the past concern that illegal immigrants may come to fear the police and not contact them in situations of emergency or in instances where they have valuable knowledge of a crime. However, the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, which represents the city's police officers, has supported the legislation and lobbied aggressively for its passage.

Religious organizations and perspectives

Activists within the church were present on both sides of the immigration debate,

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State Senator Pearce, a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) which has a substantial population in Arizona, frequently said that his efforts to push forward this legislation was based on that church's 13 Articles of Faith, one of which instructs in obeying the law. This association caused a backlash against the LDS Church and threatened its proselytizing efforts among the area's Hispanic population. The National Council of Churches also criticized the law, saying that it ran counter to centuries of biblical teachings regarding justice and neighborliness.

Other members of the Christian clergy differed on the law. United Methodist Church Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño of Arizona's Desert Southwest Conference opposed it as "unwise, short sighted and mean spirited" and led a mission of prominent religious figures to Washington to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform. But others stressed the Biblical command to follow laws. Mayor Chris Coleman of Saint Paul, Minnesota, labeled it as "draconian" as did Democratic Texas House of Representatives member Garnet Coleman. Edwin Kneedler, the U.S. Deputy Solicitor General, also criticized the legislation for its potential infringement on the civil liberties of Arizona's citizens and lawful permanent residents.

Proponents of the law have rejected such criticism, and argued that the law was reasonable, limited, and carefully crafted. Stewart Baker, a former Homeland Security official in the George W. Bush administration, said, "The coverage of this law and the text of the law are a little hard to square. There's nothing in the law that requires cities to stop people without cause, or encourages racial or ethnic profiling by itself." Montenegro, who legally immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador with his family when he was four, stated, "I am saying if you here illegally, get in line, come in the right way."

Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado also said the law's requirement to carry papers all the time was reminiscent of the anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany and feared that Arizona was headed towards becoming a police state. Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles said, "I can't imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation."

The Anti-Defamation League called for an end to the comparisons with Nazi Germany, saying that no matter how odious or unconstitutional the Arizona law might be, it did not compare to the role that Nazi identity cards played in what eventually became the extermination of European Jews.

In its final form, HB 2162 limits the use of race. It states: "A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution." The Arizona Supreme Court agrees that “enforcement of immigration laws often involves a relevant consideration of ethnic factors.” Both decisions say that race alone, however, is an insufficient basis to stop or arrest.

Protests

Thousands of people staged protests in state capital Phoenix over the law around the time of its signing, and a pro-immigrant activist called the measure "racist". Passage of the HB 2162 modifications to the law, although intended to address some of the criticisms of it, did little to change the minds of the law's opponents.

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Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the law in over 70 U.S. cities on May 1, 2010, a day traditionally used around the world to assert workers' rights. A rally in Los Angeles, attended by Cardinal Mahoney, attracted between 50,000 and 60,000 people, with protesters waving Mexican flags and chanting "Sí se puede". Around 25,000 people were at a protest in Dallas, and more than 5,000 were in Chicago and Milwaukee, while rallies in other cities generally attracted around a thousand people or so. There and in some other locations, demonstrators expressed frustration with what they saw as the administration's lack of action on immigration reform, with signs holding messages such as "Hey Obama! Don't deport my mama." Those opposing it, mostly consisting of Latinos, marched five miles to the State Capitol in high heat, while those supporting it met in a stadium in an event arranged by elements of the Tea Party movement. Linda Ronstadt, of part Mexican descent and raised in Arizona, also appeared in Phoenix and said, "Mexican-Americans are not going to take this lying down." A May 16 concert in Mexico City's Zócalo, called Prepa Si Youth For Dignity: We Are All Arizona, drew some 85,000 people to hear Molotov, Jaguares, and Maldita Vecindad headline a seven-hour show in protest against the law.

The Major League Baseball Players Association, of whose members one quarter are born outside the U.S., said that the law "could have a negative impact on hundreds of major league players," especially since many teams come to Arizona for spring training, and called for it to be "repealed or modified promptly." A Major League Baseball game at Wrigley Field where the Arizona Diamondbacks were visiting the Chicago Cubs saw demonstrators protesting the law. The Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association wore their "Los Suns" uniforms normally used for the league's "Noche Latina" program for their May 5, 2010 (Cinco de Mayo) playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs to show their support for Arizona's Latino community and to voice disapproval of the immigration law. The Suns' political action, rare in American team sports, created a firestorm and drew opposition from many of the teams' fans; President Obama highlighted it, while conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh called the move "cowardice, pure and simple."

Boycotts

Boycotts of Arizona were organized in response to SB 1070, with resolutions by city governments being among the first to materialize.

In an attempt to push back against the Los Angeles City Council's action, which was valued at $56 million,

U.S. Congressman Raúl Grijalva, from Arizona's 7th congressional district, had been the first prominent officeholder to call for an economic boycott of his state, by industries from manufacturing to tourism, in response to SB 1070. His call was echoed by La Opinión, the nation's largest Spanish-language newspaper. The prospect of an adverse economic impact made Arizonan business leaders and groups nervous, and Phoenix officials estimated that the city could lose up to $90 million in hotel and convention business over the next five years due to the controversy over the law. Phoenix Mayor Gordon urged people not to punish the entire state as a consequence. Arizona did have a past case of a large-scale boycott during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it lost many conventions and several hundred million dollars in revenues after Governor Evan Mecham's cancellation of a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day state holiday and a subsequent failed initial referendum to restore it.

The Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce opposed both the law and the idea of boycotting, saying the latter would only hurt small businesses and the state’s economy, which was already badly damaged by the collapse of real estate prices and the late-2000s recession. Other state business groups opposed a boycott for the same reasons. President Obama took no position on the matter, saying, "I'm the president of the United States, I don't endorse boycotts or not endorse boycotts. That's something that private citizens can make a decision about."

Sports-related boycotts were proposed as well. U.S. Congressman from New York José Serrano asked baseball commissioner Bud Selig to move the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game from Chase Field in Phoenix. The manager of the Chicago White Sox, Ozzie Guillen, stated that he would boycott that game "as a Latin American". The World Boxing Council, based in Mexico City, said it would not schedule Mexican boxers to fight in the state. Called the Sound Strike, artists signing on with the effort included Kanye West, Cypress Hill, Massive Attack, Conor Oberst, Sonic Youth, Joe Satriani, Rise Against, Tenacious D, The Coup, Gogol Bordello, and Los Tigres del Norte. Elton John very publicly oppposed such efforts, saying at a concert performance in Tucson: "We are all very pleased to be playing in Arizona. I have read that some of the artists won't come here. They are fuckwits! Let's face it: I still play in California, and as a gay man I have no legal rights whatsoever. So what's the fuck up with these people?" By November 2010, Pitbull had announced a change of heart, playing a show in Phoenix because large parts of the law had been stopped by the judicial action. My Chemical Romance, an original Sound Strike participant, supposedly dropped out and scheduled a show in the state as well (however, the following day the show was cancelled and the band apologized, explaining that it was an error with tour scheduling and it should not have been booked in the first place due to "the band's affiliation with The Sound Strike" ). De la Rocha said Sound Strike would continue despite the injunction against large parts of SB 1070 in order to battle Arizona's "racist and fear mongering state government" and until the Obama administration stopped participating in federal actions such as the 287(g) program, Secure Communities, and other U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies.

In reaction to the boycott talk, proponents of the law advocated making a special effort to buy products and services from Arizona in order to indicate support for the law. These efforts, sometimes termed a "buycott", were spread by social media and talk radio as well as by elements of the Tea Party movement.

By early May, the state had lost a projected $6–10 million in business revenue, according to the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association. However, an increase in leisure travel and an overall economic recovery more than compensated for the business travel loss; by July, overall hotel occupancy rates and revenues were up from the same period in 2009. The president of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council said, "Fundamentally, the boycotts have been unsuccessful." However, an examination at the same time by the Associated Press found that while the boycott had been disruptive in some areas, it had had nowhere near the effect some had originally imagined. Visitors at Grand Canyon National Park were up from the year before, several well-known Arizona-based companies that were targeted said they had seen no effect from it, and the actions by the San Francisco and Los Angeles city governments had resulted in few practical consequences.

Impact

Some Christian churches in Arizona with large immigrant congregations reported a 30 percent drop in their attendance figures. A November 2010 study by BBVA Bancomer based upon Current Population Survey figures stated that there were 100,000 fewer Hispanics in Arizona than before the debate about the law began; it said Arizona's poor economic climate could also be contributing to the decline. The government of Mexico reported that over 23,000 of its citizens returned to the country from Arizona between June and September 2010. Senator Schumer sent a letter to Governor Brewer asking her to delay the law while Congress works on comprehensive immigration reform, but Brewer quickly rejected the proposal.

Bills similar to SB 1070 were introduced in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Michigan, Minnesota, and South Carolina. None of them went to final votes in 2010; politicians in nearly twenty states are proposing to introduce similar legislation during their 2011 legislative calendars. and some states may have waited to see how the Arizona law fares in the courts before moving forward. The other states along the Mexican border – Texas, New Mexico, and California – generally showed little interest in following Arizona's path. This was due to their having established, powerful Hispanic communities, deep cultural ties to Mexico, past experience with bruising political battles over the issue (such as with California Proposition 187 in the 1990s), and the perception among their populations that illegal immigration was less severe a problem. Reasons ranged from opposition from business leaders to fear among legislators of the legal costs of defending any adopted measure. Some college and university administrators shared this fear, and President Robert N. Shelton of the University of Arizona expressed concern regarding the withdrawal of a number of honor roll students from the university in reaction to this bill.

Some women with questionable immigration status have been avoiding domestic abuse hotlines and shelters for fear of deportation. Some critics of SB 1070 fear that it will serve as a roadblock to victims getting needed support, while supporters say such concerns are unfounded and that the Act is directed towards criminals, not victims.

While a few provisions of the law were left standing following the July 2010 blockage of the most controversial parts, authorities often kept following existing local ordinances in those areas in preference to using the new SB 1070 ones. One county sheriff said, "The whole thing is still on the shelf until the Supreme Court hears it."

Challenges to legality and constitutionality

The Supremacy Clause vs. concurrent enforcement

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) criticized the statute as a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, which gives the federal government authority over the states in immigration matters and provides that only the federal government can enact and enforce immigration laws. Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional scholar and dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law says that "The law is clearly pre-empted by federal law under Supreme Court precedents." – and Kobach stated that he believes it would thus survive any challenge: "There are some things that states can do and some that states can't do, but this law threads the needle perfectly.... Arizona only penalizes what is already a crime under federal law." the Court held that the Immigration and Naturalization Act precludes local enforcement of the Act's civil provisions but does not preclude local enforcement of the Act's criminal provisions. The U.S. Attorney General may enter into a written agreement with a state or local government agency, under which that agency's employees perform the function of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension, or detention of aliens in the United States; however, such an agreement is not required for the agency's employees to perform those functions.

On the other hand, various legal experts were divided on whether the law would survive a court challenge, with one law professor saying it "sits right on that thin line of pure state criminal law and federally controlled immigration law." Past lower court decisions in this area were not always consistent and a decision on the bill's legality from the U.S. Supreme Court is one possible outcome. The National Coalition's filing claimed that the law usurped federal responsibilities under the Supremacy Clause, and also that it lends itself to racial profiling by imposing a "reasonable suspicion" requirement upon police officers to check the immigration status of those they come in official conduct with, which will in turn be subject to too much personal interpretation by each officer. Escobar's suit argued that there was no race-neutral criteria available to him to suspect that a person was an illegal immigrant, and that implementation of the law would hinder police investigations in areas that were predominantly Hispanic.

A Phoenix police officer, David Salgado, quickly followed with his own federal suit, claiming that to enforce the law he would be required to violate the rights of Hispanics. Another individual suit was filed by Roberto Javier Frisancho, a naturalized citizen and Washington, D.C., resident who said he planned to visit the state to conduct research.

On May 17, a joint class action lawsuit, Friendly House et al. v. Whiting, was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of ten individuals and fourteen labor, religious, and civil rights organizations. The legal counsel filing the action, which is the largest of those filed, is a collaboration of the ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the state affiliate of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, alleged in an amicus curiae brief for the ACLU et al. case that the prolonged detentions mandated by the law when there is reasonable suspicion that someone subject to a lawful stop is an illegal alien are justifiable only under the probable cause standard and thus that the law requires violations of Fourth Amendment rights. The Anti-Defamation League also filed an amicus curiae brief in support of this case. So too did the Government of Mexico, saying the law is unconstitutional, would lead to unlawful discrimination against Mexican citizens, and would damage bilateral relations between the two nations. Indeed, so many amicus curiae briefs have been filed regarding the law that size limits were imposed upon them. Brewer got into a dispute with Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard over whether he would defend the law against legal challenges, as a state attorney general normally would. and that "The immigration framework set forth by Congress and administered by federal agencies reflects a careful and considered balance of national law enforcement, foreign relations, and humanitarian concerns – concerns that belong to the nation as a whole, not a single state." Immediate reaction to the Justice Department's decision was highly split, with liberal groups hailing it but with Governor Brewer calling it "nothing more than a massive waste of taxpayer funds." Congressman Darrell Issa, one of nineteen Republicans to sign a letter criticizing the suit on the day it was announced, said "For President Obama to stand in the way of a state which has taken action to stand up for its citizens against the daily threat of violence and fear is disgraceful and a betrayal of his Constitutional obligation to protect our citizens."

The Arizona Latino Republican Association became the first Latino organization to come out in support of SB 1070 and filed a motion to intervene against the Justice Department's lawsuit challenging it. An attempt in the U.S. Senate to block funding for the Justice Department's lawsuit lost by a 55–43 vote that was mostly along party lines.

Hearings and rulings

Hearings on three of the seven lawsuits were held on July 15 and 22, 2010, before U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton.

On July 28, 2010, Judge Bolton issued a ruling on the Justice Department suit, United States of America v. Arizona, granting a preliminary injunction that blocked the most key and controversial portions of SB 1070 from going into effect. These included requiring police to check the immigration status of those arrested or stopped, which the judge ruled would overwhelm the federal government handling of immigration cases, and could mean that legal immigrants would be wrongly arrested. Judge Bolton wrote that "Federal resources will be taxed and diverted from federal enforcement priorities as a result of the increase in requests for immigration status determination that will flow from Arizona." State Senator Pearce predicted that the legal battle would eventually end up in the Supreme Court and likely be upheld by a 5–4 margin.

Judge Bolton's ruling let a number of other aspects of the law take effect on July 29, including the ability to prevent state officials from maintaining "sanctuary city" policies and allowing civil suits against those policies, the mandating that state officials work with federal officials on matters related to illegal immigration, and the prohibition against stopping a vehicle in traffic to pick up day laborers. These parts of the law were not challenged by the Justice Department, but were in some of the other suits.

In February 2011, Arizona filed a countersuit against the federal government in the United States v. Arizona case, accusing it of failing to secure the Mexican border against large numbers of illegal immigrants. Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne acknowledged that precedent surrounding sovereign immunity in the United States made the state's case difficult, but said, "We're asking the 9th Circuit to take a second look." Paez agreed with the administration's view that the state had intruded upon federal prerogatives. Noonan wrote in his concurrence: "The Arizona statute before us has become a symbol. For those sympathetic to immigrants to the United States, it is a challenge and a chilling foretaste of what other states might attempt." Bolton's court continues to oversee the other lawsuits.

See also

Illegal immigration in the United States

Chandler Roundup

Mississippi SB 2179

Special Order 40

Sanctuary city

Utah Compact

Notes

References

External links

Documents for SB 1070 at the Arizona State Legislature

Documents for HB 2162 at the Arizona State Legislature

SB1070 as amended by HB 2162 (combined version), unofficial but provided by Arizona State Legislature

House Engrossed Senate Bill SB 1070, as enacted, Arizona Governor website.

Conference engrossed Bill HB 2162 Amending SB 1070, as enacted, Arizona Governor website.

United States Code Title 8 – Aliens and Nationality

SB1070 Public Information Center – Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board

Gabriel J. Chin, Carissa Byrne Hessick, Toni Massaro & Marc Miller, Arizona Senate Bill 1070: A Preliminary Report, Social Science Research Network

Keith Gaddie & Kelly Damphousse, editors. Social Science Quarterly virtual issue: Immigration on the One Year Anniversary of Arizona SB 1070.

Fact sheet for S.B. 1070 (Hoja de resumen para la S.B. 1070)

Category:Arizona statutes Category:United States immigration law Category:2010 in law Category:2010 in the United States Category:Illegal immigration to the United States