A New Bybee Memo Surfaces—on Practices Authorized by Ariz. Immigration Law
The federal appeals judge who once wrote controversial memos for the Justice Department authorizing harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects is back in the news for another memo he wrote, this one on immigration law.
The memo by Jay Bybee, now a judge on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said state police officers have “inherent power” to arrest undocumented immigrants, the Washington Post reports. The 2002 legal opinion was released in redacted form in 2005 in response to a lawsuit by civil rights groups.
The legal opinion could be a complication if the Justice Department files a lawsuit challenging the Arizona law. “The Obama administration has not withdrawn the memo, and some backers of the Arizona law said Monday that because it remains in place, a Justice Department lawsuit against Arizona would be awkward at best,” the story says.
The Arizona 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. Cecillia Wang, managing attorney of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, told the Post that the Arizona law gives police power that is far beyond the basic arrest authority cited in Bybee’s memo. As a result, she doesn’t think it should stand in the way of a Justice Department suit.
