News Update - July 8, 2010

By Alan Lee, Esq.

Department of Justice Challenges Arizona’s Immigration Policy in Federal Court

The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit on July 6, 2010 in the District Court of Arizona challenging the constitutionality of S.B. 1070, the strictest and broadest anti-immigration measure in decades covering a range of topics including aggressive use of local law enforcement for immigration-related stops for which spurious reasons may be employed to harass and stop anybody who does not look Caucasian. A request for a preliminary injunction to enjoin its enforcement was made. The brief, submitted on behalf of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and State, underlines the irreparable harm an independent state immigration policy which exceeds constitutional boundaries will cause, stating that Arizona’s immigration law unconstitutionally interferes with the federal government’s authority to set and enforce immigration policy and that its enactment is inconsistent with federal immigration law.

It further said that S.B. 1070 places significant burdens on federal agencies because its enforcement invariably diverts resources away from high-priority targets such as aliens implicated in terrorism, drug smuggling, gang activity, etc. and can result in the wrongful detention of foreign visitors, legal immigrants, and U.S. citizens. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano noted that although an Arizona-specific immigration policy is unconstitutional, the U.S. government will continue to enhance border security and expel criminal aliens.


The author is a 30+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

This article © 2010 Alan Lee, Esq.

 

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