Today a federal judge in Arizona temporarily enjoined key provisions of Arizona S.B. 1070 from taking effect pending a trial on the entire law. The court ruled that the Department of Justice is likely to prevail on four of the six provisions it specifically challenged in the lawsuit. The judge denied the federal government’s request to block implementation of the entire legislation and only ruled on the provisions DOJ explicitly challenged. The court temporarily blocked implementation of the following provisions in the law:
- Requiring that an officer make a reasonable attempt to determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained, or arrested if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person is unlawfully present in the United States, and requiring verification of the immigration status of any person arrested prior to releasing that person
- Creating a crime for the failure to apply for or carry alien registration papers
- Creating a crime for an unauthorized alien to solicit, apply for, or perform work
- Authorizing the warrantless arrest of a person where there is probable cause to believe the person has committed a public offense that makes the person removable from the United States
The following is a statement from Angela M. Kelley, Vice President of Immigration Policy and Advocacy for the Center for American Progress, on the court’s ruling:
“At long last, a sober immigration debate is underway in Arizona. Cooler heads prevailed today when U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton wisely stopped immediate implementation of several of S.B. 1070’s most onerous provisions. She agreed with the federal government that S.B. 1070 conflicts with and intrudes upon federal authority over immigration matters and enforcement. She went on to say that enforcement of these key provisions ‘would likely burden legal resident aliens and interfere with federal policy.’
“The judge’s ruling is sound and should send a strong signal to Washington. Federal lawmakers from both parties must come out from under their desks and work toward a lasting solution for America’s communities, instead of letting states turn themselves into immigration enforcement experiments that put police in a corner and paint a bull’s-eye on the backs of people based on how they look.”
Angela M. Kelley and Marshall Fitz, Director of Immigration Policy at the Center for American Progress, are available for interviews. To speak with them please contact Raúl Arce-Contreras at 202.478.5318 or [email protected].
Vanessa Cárdenas, Directora de Progress 2050, está disponible para brindar análisis sobre este tema en español.
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