US Supreme Court to Weigh Arizona Statute on Immigration
The Obama administration sued to block four parts of Arizona’s immigration law.
The challenged provisions include the following: a requirement that state law enforcement officials determine the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest if officials have reason to believe that the individual might be an illegal immigrant. A requirment that the immigration status of people who are arrested be determined before they are released.The law makes it a crime under state law for immigrants to fail to register under a federal law and for illegal immigrants to work or to try find work. In addition, it allows the police to arrest people without warrants if they have probable cause to believe that they have done things that would make them deportable under federal law. This last provision is especially controversial because many believe it will result in ethic and/or racial profiling.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, had previously blocked all four provisions. Arizona is part of the Ninth Circuit and subject to that court’s decisions on the constitutionality of it’s laws. The Supreme Court will be reviewing the lower court’s decision to block the law.
