Lawsuit aginst Arizona immigration law

The Justice Department in July 2010 filed a lawsuit challenging the state's immigration policy, claiming the "invalid" law interfered with federal immigration responsibilities and "must be struck down." 

The suit named the state of Arizona as well as Gov. Jan Brewer as defendants. In it, the Justice Department claimed the federal government has "preeminent authority" on immigration enforcement and that the Arizona law "disrupts" that balance. It urged the U.S. District Court in Arizona to "preliminarily and permanently" prohibit the state from enforcing the law.

 

The full case can be found here.

 

 On July, 28 a federal court in Pheonix blocked the following provisions from the law:*

 •    The requirement that police officers investigate the immigration status of all individuals they stop if the officers suspect that they are in the country unlawfully;
•    The mandatory detention of individuals who are arrested, even for minor offenses that would normally result in a ticket, if they cannot verify that they are authorized to be in the U.S.;
•    The new statute imposing state criminal penalties for non-citizens failing to register with the Department of Homeland Security or failing to carry registration documents;
•    The provision for warrantless arrest of individuals who are deemed by state or local police officers to be "removable" from the U.S.; and
•    The new state statute making it a crime for alleged undocumented immigrants to work.

 

The court blocked the provision that would create an Arizona ban on undocumented persons applying for, soliciting or performing work. However, the court did not block the provisions that prohibit day laborers from being hired if the party hiring them impedes traffic. The civil rights coalition maintains these sections violate free speech protections and are confident that they too will ultimately be barred as unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

*All of the following information was taken directly from the ACLU website

Information by the justice department can be found here at their website.