Legal Battles Expected over Arizona’s New Immigration Law
The president of a Hispanic legal group is expecting multiple challenges to Arizona’s new law that makes it a crime to be an undocumented alien in the state.
Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, says the law signed by the governor on Friday is “extraordinarily vulnerable to a legal challenge,” the Arizona Republic reports.
The law requires police to check immigration status if they have a reasonable suspicion that someone is undocumented, and makes it a state crime to be an undocumented immigrant. The measure is scheduled to take effect 90 days after the end of the state legislative session.
Critics say the law usurps federal authority over immigration law and violates the supremacy clause, according to the Arizona Republic story. They also say the law may lead to racial profiling and violations of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and 14th Amendment equal protection guarantees.
But supporters say the law doesn’t interfere with federal authority because it penalizes under state law what is already illegal under federal law, the story says. They point to court battles over another much-criticized Arizona law penalizing employers for knowingly hiring illegal aliens. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the law.
President Obama on Friday said he has instructed the Justice Department to monitor the law for “civil rights and other implications,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
