Law on aliens target as U.S. sues Arizona

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government sued the state of Arizona, challenging the constitutionality of an immigration law set to take effect July 29.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Phoenix, claims that the law encroaches on the federal government’s responsibilities. The Justice Department is seeking an injunction to block Arizona from enforcing the law.

“A state may not establish its own immigration policy or enforce state laws in a manner that interferes with the federal immigration laws,” the U.S. wrote in the complaint.

The law makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally. It requires local police officers, after having a law enforcement reason to stop someone, to determine his immigration status if they suspect the person lacks proper documentation.

The heart of the Justice Department’s arguments focuses on the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, under which federal law is to be followed in the face of conflicting state law. The lawsuit says there are comprehensive federal laws on the books that cover illegal immigration. Those statutes take precedence, the suit says.

“In our constitutional system, the federal government has preeminent authority to regulate immigration matters,” the lawsuit says. “This authority derives from the United States Constitution and numerous acts of Congress. The nation’s immigration laws reflect a careful and considered balance of national law enforcement, foreign relations, and humanitarian interests.”

Tuesday’s lawsuit follows other challenges, including ones by the American Civil Liberties Union and by an Arizona police officer who doesn’t want to enforce the statute.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Tuesday that current U.S. policies have resulted in the state being “under attack” from Mexican drug and alien smuggling cartels.

“We cannot delay while the destruction happening south of our international border creeps its way north,” she said.

“The truth is the Arizona law is both reasonable and constitutional,” Brewer said in a statement. “It mirrors substantially what has been federal law in the United States for many decades. Arizona’s law is designed to complement, not supplant, enforcement of federal immigration laws.”

The bill doesn’t allow racial profiling or discrimination, Brewer said when she signed it into law in April.

U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona, a Democrat, Tuesday criticized the Obama administration for failing to mend what she called a broken immigration system. The lawsuit is a distraction from the immigration debate, she said in a statement.

“The White House and Congress need to start developing a better approach to border security and immigration reform, working with us instead of against us,” Kirkpatrick said.

President Barack Obama has said overhauling immigration law is one of his highest priorities. In 2007, Congress failed in an attempt to rewrite immigration legislation for the first time in 20 years.

Obama said in April that lawmakers may lack the “appetite” to try again. Democratic leaders are focusing on measures to improve border security before addressing the 11 million illegal aliens now in the U.S.

The ACLU said in its lawsuit that the Arizona law interferes with federal power and authority over immigration matters in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The statute also infringes the free-speech rights of day laborers in the state, the group said.

Other suits challenging the law claim that it will hinder law-enforcement efforts, with people less likely to attend community meetings or come forward to report crimes because of concern that their appearance or accents may result in the police questioning their citizenship.

“The idea of letting one state, much less 50, have their own schemes that come into a conflict with federal immigration law - it is untenable,” said Anne Milgram, the former New Jersey attorney general who is now a senior fellow at New York University Law’s Center on the Administration of Criminal Law. The center plans to filean amicus brief in support of the U.S. suit.

The Justice Department says the law will divert resources from Arizona’s high profile targets, such as aliens implicated in terrorism, drug smuggling and gang activity.

“Deterring, investigating and solving serious and violent crimes are the department’s top priorities, and it would be impossible for us to do our job without the collaboration and support of community members, including those who may be in the country unlawfully,” Jack Harris, the Phoenix police chief, said in a filing in support of the lawsuit.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said: “Arizonans are understandably frustrated with illegal immigration, and the federal government has a responsibility to comprehensively address those concerns. But diverting federal resources away from dangerous aliens such as terrorism suspects and aliens with criminal records will impact the entire country’s safety.”

Almost three-quarters - 73 percent - of Americans support provisions requiring people to produce documents verifying they are in the U.S. legally, according to a May poll by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

The poll surveyed 994adults and had margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

“The case strikes me as incredibly important because of its implications for the immigration debate,” University of Michigan constitutional law professor Julian Davis Mortenson said. “The courts are going to take a close look at whether the Arizona law conflicts with congressional objectives at the federal level.”

Kris Kobach, the University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor who helped draft the Arizona law, said he’s not surprised by the Justice Department’s challenge but called it “unnecessary.”

He noted that the law already is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups opposed to the new statute.

“The issue was already teed up in the courts. There’s no reason for the Justice Department to get involved. The Justice Department doesn’t add anything by bringing their own lawsuit,” Kobach said in an interview.

The Mexican government welcomed the decision to sue to block a law that it said “affects the civil and human rights of thousands of Mexicans.”

The case is United States of America v. State of Arizona, 2:10cv1413, U.S. District Court for Arizona (Phoenix).

Information for this article was contributed by William McQuillen, Emily Heller and Justin Blum of Bloomberg News and by Bob Christie, Paul Davenport, Johnathan J. Cooper, John Hanna and Pete Yost of The Associated Press.