Major Sections of Arizona’s Immigration Law Suspended

On July 8, 2010, I posted on Slaw that the United States government had filed a lawsuit against the State of Arizona over the state’s new immigration law (Arizona Senate Bill 1070), arguing that the law means to supersede the federal government’s authority under the US Constitution to regulate immigration. Although the case is not over yet, on July 28, 2010, US District Judge Susan Bolton said the US administration “is likely to succeed” in its argument and issued a preliminary injunction suspending the implementation of several key provisions of Arizona’s immigration law that were to come into force July 29, 2010. Meaning, the technical parts of the law SB 1070 will indeed come into force as planned on July 29, 2010, because both parties agree that they are constitutional. However, several controversial sections in the law are put on hold and cannot be implemented until the courts resolve the issues.

Sections of the law that are deferred would:

• Require police officers to determine the immigration status of people they stop for a violation of any law and think are in the country illegally
• Require people to carry their papers at all times in public places and make it a crime for the failure to apply for valid immigration papers
• Require everyone who is arrested to have their immigration status checked with the federal government before release
• Allow police officers to arrest anyone they believe has committed a crime that would make them removable from the country
• Make it a crime for illegal immigrants to apply for or perform any work

Judge Bolton said that she was issuing the injunction against the most controversial elements of the law because otherwise, “the United States is likely to suffer irreparable harm.” Agreed!

Arizona is expected to appeal the decision immediately to the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Good luck!