Police Immigration-Checks Law Should Be Upheld, Arizona Argues
August 27, 2010, 12:03 AM EDTBy Joel Rosenblatt
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Arizona should be able to enforce a law requiring police to determine the immigration status of people stopped for questioning, its lawyers told a U.S. appeals court while seeking to overturn a ruling blocking the statute.
Lawyers for Arizona told the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the Justice Department, which sued to block the state’s law, failed to demonstrate the federal government’s right to stop it from enforcing the statute. The appeal is scheduled to be argued the first week of November.
“The Arizona Legislature carefully crafted” its law to ensure that the state enforces federal immigration policies “in compliance with existing federal laws and pursuant to well- established criminal and constitutional law and practice,” lawyers for the state wrote in the filing.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix held in her July 28 ruling that the state can’t require police to make a “reasonable attempt” to determine whether someone is legally in the U.S. and then detain that person if there is “suspicion” that he isn’t.
Bolton also barred enforcement of provisions making it a crime for illegal immigrants to solicit or perform work. In addition, the ruling blocked police officers from warrantless arrests of people they think might be illegal immigrants.
An estimated 50 percent of illegal aliens enter the U.S. through Arizona, the state said in its filing yesterday. The illegal immigration and related drug and human trafficking spurred Governor Janice Brewer to sign the Arizona law in April to eliminate “sanctuary policies” that in some Arizona cities restrict law enforcement officers’ ability to cooperate with federal enforcement officers, according to the filing.
‘Mirror’ U.S. Laws
Arizona argues many of the provisions blocked by Bolton’s ruling are state laws that “mirror existing federal laws pursuant to the state’s broad police powers.” Bolton wrongly concluded that the U.S. has a good chance of succeeding in its argument that the Arizona law is unconstitutional and would unfairly burden legal immigrants, Arizona claimed.
Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment on the filing, saying lawyers for the U.S. will respond in a legal filing due in about four weeks.
The case is United States of America v. State of Arizona, 10-16645, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco). The lower court case is United States of America v. State of Arizona, 2:10cv1413, U.S. District Court, District of Arizona (Phoenix).
--Editors: Peter Blumberg, Michael Hytha.
To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
