We saw this one coming, but it’s still a momentous occasion: the US Department of Justice filed suit today against the state of Arizona over their controversial immigration bill, SB 1070. This bill, signed into law in late April by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, makes it a misdemeanor for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying registration papers, and enables police officers to request documentation on “reasonable suspicion” that someone is an illegal immigrant.
Opponents of the law have a simple term for it: racial profiling. CAUSA Oregon Executive Director Francisco Lopez issued a statement today about the federal lawsuit:
CAUSA and our sister organizations applaud the action by the Obama Administration to sue to block Arizona’s misguided law targeting Latino immigrants. The duty to set immigration policy rests with the Federal Government and not with individual states, counties or cities wishing to create their own patchwork of laws.
This action by the federal government sends a strong message that laws racially targeting segments of our population will not be tolerated as they are both unlawful and un-American.
Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton let slip on an Ecuadorean TV broadcast that a lawsuit from the DOJ was forthcoming.
It’s really not that momentous. This is a Supremacy Clause issue, plain and simple – if Arizona had made the opposite law, one that said “we’re taking down the border wall, and free ice cream and jobs for all illegal immigrants,” there would be a similar challenge to preserve the total federal power over all issues related to immigration.
“makes it a misdemeanor for an *alien* to be in Arizona without carrying registration papers”
I guess this is why *the aliens* crashed in New Mexico and not Arizona. On a lighter note, commenter Alf (Alien Life Form) better cancel his summer vacation to the Grand Canyon.