Federal Government Sues Over Arizona Immigration Law
With the Justice Department filing suit against Arizona’s new law on immigration on Tuesday, the latest poll shows that Americans remain divided on whether the government should focus on halting the flow of illegal immigrants into the country or developing a plan to deal with those who are already in the U.S.
The Justice Department filed suit in Arizona, arguing that the law violates the federal government’s authority to establish policy on immigration. Technically, the federal government is seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent Arizona from enforcing the law when it goes into effect July 29.
The suit, which had been expected, comes as the latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Americans are divided on which part of the immigration issue to stress. Half of Americans say they favor halting the flow of immigrants into the U.S., while 45% said they would focus on dealing with the estimated 12 million undocumented workers already in the country.
The poll was taken June 11-13 before President Obama’s recent speech about immigration. He called for dealing with both issues, those entering illegally and those already here, at the same time.
Americans’ current attitudes are roughly similar to June 2006, a month after President George W. Bush delivered an Oval Office speech calling for comprehensive immigration reform. The earlier poll found that 52% of Americans favored efforts to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border, while 43% wanted a resolution of the status of those already in the country.
In his speech, Obama called for a bipartisan push from Democrats and Republicans to deal with immigration reform. That is considered unlikely in this midterm election year.
Unsurprisingly, the political division in the latest poll showed that more than two-thirds of Republicans want the focus to be on border security, while 55% of Democrats want it to be on those in the country.
Results are based on telephone interviews of 1,014 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The federal suit against the Arizona law had been expected for weeks, with top officials, including Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signaling it was coming. But the papers filed Tuesday are narrow.
In its brief, the government argues that “the Constitution and federal law do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country.” The law would also place “significant burdens on federal agencies, diverting their resources away from high-priority targets, such as aliens implicated in terrorism, drug smuggling, and gang activity, and those with criminal records. The law’s mandates on Arizona law enforcement will also result in the harassment and detention of foreign visitors and legal immigrants, as well as U.S. citizens, who cannot readily prove their lawful status,” the agency argued.
“Arizonans are understandably frustrated with illegal immigration, and the federal government has a responsibility to comprehensively address those concerns,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a statement. “But diverting federal resources away from dangerous aliens such as terrorism suspects and aliens with criminal records will impact the entire country’s safety. Setting immigration policy and enforcing immigration laws is a national responsibility. Seeking to address the issue through a patchwork of state laws will only create more problems than it solves.”
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