Immigration: the Federal Perspective

FEDERAL SUIT AGAINST ARIZONA

On July 6, 2010, The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the State of Arizona and its Governor, Janice Brewer, seeking an injunction against Arizona’s Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, slated to go into effect on July 29, 2010.

The suit, filed on behalf of The Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State, seeks to declare the law invalid and prevent it from going into effect.

The suit maintains that SB 1070 is preempted by Federal Law, since the law gives these agencies the preeminent authority to regulate immigration matters.

The DOJ brief makes it clear that while states may exercise their police power in a manner that has an effect on undocumented persons, they may not establish their own immigration policy or enforce state laws in a manner so as to interfere with federal immigration laws.

Arizona’s SB 1070 has one central goal—attrition of illegal immigration, while, according to DOJ, the federal immigration system has many other, complex objectives that drive overarching federal immigration policy.

To read the DOJ Brief challenging Arizona's Immigration Law, click here.

To read the DOJ suit against the State of Arizona, click here.