House Democrats have weighed in on the Arizona law (SB 1070), which is pending oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court this month on the constitutionality of the policing provisions of the law, including whether state and local law enforcement officials can check the immigration status of indivudals they stop or arrest. Note that the Supreme Court is reviewing the policing measures of the Arizona law, having already decided that the E-Verify provisions are constitutional and not pre-empted by federal law. How they decide this case will have an impact on other states that have passed similarly harsh immigration laws which can be described as policing measures, such as Alabama and Georgia.
The amici curiae brief was signed by dozens of lawmakers and the argument is essentially that the Supreme Court should leave to the U.S. Congress, not the states, the issue of how federal immigration law is enforced. Said another way, the Arizona law should be pre-empted as it directly conflicts with federal law. It’s great that Congress is weighing in on the Arizona law, but maybe they should focus on rallying to address comprehensive immigration reform so that they don’t have to then assert their authority on the issue before the Supreme Court when states act. Just a thought.
While still on this subject, Immigration Impact published a blog post on March 29 highlighting opposition to Arizona SB 1070 and the impressive list of parties’ ranges from law enforcement officers to former high ranking government officials to states, cities and counties.