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dumb ass redneck trainwreck
Arizona judge puts crackdown on illegal immigration on hold
By Guy Adams in Phoenix, Arizona
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Protestors pray outside the State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona after a judge blocked parts of a bill aimed at illegal immigration
A crackdown on illegal immigration in Arizona was thrown into a state of limbo yesterday, as a judge at the State Capitol
in Phoenix put almost every one of its most controversial measures on hold, just 14 hours before they had been due to take effect.
The temporary injunction issued by Judge Susan Bolton shortly after 10am left supporters of the now-notorious Senate Bill 1070 facing a protracted legal battle to enact their legislation, which has recently been at the centre of a heated national debate.
It prevents four of the most widely-criticised elements of the proposed new law from taking effect, including a hugely contentious provision which would have required police across the State to stop, question, and possibly arrest anyone they "reasonably suspect" of having entered the US illegally.
Opponents claimed that the measure would lead to the racial stereotyping of anyone who happens to have dark skin, since members of the Latino community make up the vast majority of the estimated 460,000 unlawful residents of Arizona, which shares several hundred miles of its southern border with Mexico.
They had also challenged an element of the law which would have both required immigrants to carry their identification papers with them at all times, and an element which was designed to force the police to enquire about the immigration status of every single person they arrest.
In her ruling, issued via email, Judge Bolton said it was likely that these elements of the proposed law would represent an illegal infringement of civil liberties. She also found that opponents of 1070 were "likely to succeed" with an argument that the law interferes with the right of the Federal Government (rather than individual States) to run immigration enforcement.
"Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked," Bolton said, in a key passage of the decision. It represents a huge victory for President Obama, whose administration had sued to stop 1070 and hopes to enact wholesale immigration reform later this year. It was also met with delight by roughly 300 demonstrators gathered outside the State Capitol in Phoenix in preparation for protests and civil disobedience scheduled to begin at midnight.
When news of it filtered through, the crowd cheered, while DJs from a local Spanish-language radio station played mariachi music, and passing motorists honked their horns. Shortly afterwards, they held a noisy service at a makeshift Catholic shrine which had been built outside the Capitol building.
"A huge hole has now been knocked out of this bill," said Daniel Pochoda, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, one of seven groups who had sued to prevent 1070 being introduced. "Its only a preliminary injunction, and the case has a long way to run yet, but it's an important victory."
Supporters of the bill, including Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer, who faces a re-election battle later this year, have promised to fight their case – which has the support of a slender majority of Americans and Arizonans – all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
"It's a temporary bump in the road, we will move forward and I'm sure that after consultation with our counsel we will appeal," Brewer told Associated Press. "The bottom line is we've known all along that [immigration] is the responsibility of the feds and they haven't done their job so we were going to help them do that."
