WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court will referee another major clash between the Obama administration and the states, this one over Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants. The case could add fuel to the partisan split over tough state immigration laws backed by Republicans but challenged by the administration.
Like last month's arguments over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, the immigration case is expected to be decided at the end of June.
Wednesday's arguments will focus on whether states can adopt their own immigration measures to deal with an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, or whether the federal government has almost exclusive authority in the area of immigration.
Arizona was the first of a half-dozen states to enact laws intended to drive illegal immigrants elsewhere, a policy known as "attrition by enforcement." Even where blocked by courts, these laws have already had an impact on farm fields and school classrooms as fewer immigrants showed up.
"If the federal government had been doing and would continue to do its job in securing the border here in southern Arizona, this would not be an issue. Unfortunately, they failed to do that so Arizona stepped up and said, `We want to be partners. Here's a role we think we can play,'" said Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, which shares an 83.5-mile border with Mexico in the state's southeastern corner.
The administration says it has both increased border enforcement to keep people from entering illegally in the first place and picked up the pace of deportations. In its first two years, the administration deported nearly 800,000 people, far higher on a yearly basis than President George W. Bush's administration.
The Obama administration sued to block the Arizona law soon after its enactment two years ago. Federal courts have refused to let four key provisions take effect: requiring police, while enforcing other laws, to question a person's immigration status if officers suspect he is in the country illegally; requiring all immigrants to obtain or carry immigration registration papers; making it a state criminal offense for an illegal immigrant to seek work or hold a job and allowing police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants without warrants.
Five states- Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah- have adopted variations on Arizona's law. Parts of those laws also are on hold pending the outcome of the Supreme Court case.
Civil rights groups that mounted legal challenges independent of the administration's say the laws encourage racial profiling and ethnic stereotyping. "It blurs what used to be a very bright line, that you can't stop someone and ask for papers based just on how they look," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "But the impact is on citizens as much as immigrants. It's a dragnet approach that sweeps up law-abiding American citizens based on the color of their skin or ethnic origins."
And the state laws already have had a marked effect on people's behavior, whether or not the laws ever went into force, the groups say.
In some states, crops rotted in fields for want of workers to pick them. In Alabama, where a provision required schools to check student's citizenship status, more than 2,000 students stayed home the first week the law was in effect, said Karen Tumlin, managing attorney for the National Immigration Law Center. Foreign employees, including a German Mercedes-Benz executive, have been detained or ticketed for not carrying immigration documents.
In Arizona, around the time Gov. Jan Brewer signed the immigration law, lifelong Arizona resident Jim Shee twice confronted police officers who came to his car window asking to see his "papers."
Shee, 72, is of Chinese and Spanish descent. "I'm not blond-haired and blue-eyed. My grandkids aren't blond-haired and blue-eyed. I don't want to see this happening to them," Shee said.
He has joined a lawsuit filed by a coalition of civil rights groups. The suit is on hold until the high court renders a decision.
Shee said he carries his passport in case he gets stopped again.
The number of illegal immigrants in Arizona has declined by about a third in recent years, from 530,000 in 2007 to 360,000 in 2011, according to federal government estimates.
Experts have attributed the decrease to several factors, including the economic downturn, tighter border security and state immigration laws. A 2007 Arizona law, allowed to take effect last year by the Supreme Court, prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
But in Arizona and elsewhere, the appetite for new immigration measures appears to have waned, in part because business leaders have objected. Arizona voters ousted Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, the architect of the 2010 law and the driving force behind other Arizona immigration laws, in a November recall election.
"There has been a great deal of buyer's remorse in those states that have enacted Arizona-type legislation," the ACLU's Romero said.
The high court decision will land in the middle of a presidential campaign in which Obama has been heavily courting Latino voters and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney has been struggling to win Latino support after a drawn-out primary campaign in which he and the other GOP candidates mostly embraced a hard line to avoid accusations that they support any kind of "amnesty" for illegal immigrants living in the U.S.
Justice Elena Kagan sat out last year's case and also will not take part in the new immigration case, presumably because of her work in the Obama administration. The court's conservative majority held sway in last year's 5-3 decision.
___
Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this story.
On a day that saw hysterical open-borders adocates at the Senate hearing accuse Arizona's S.B. 1070 of "racial profiling", and even saw one illegal-addicted business lobbyist say 1070 is designed to "get rid of brown people", we want to salute the LEGAL Latino immigrants who SUPPORT 1070 and OPPOSE amnesty for illegal aliens, even though one, Anna Gaines, is called a "traitor to her race". These are the people that Schumer, Durbin, Obama, La Raza, and the ACLU want to pretend do not exist. But their message is OUR message: Illegal is NOT a race, it is a CRIME! [VIDEO below]
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PHOENIX (AP) - The United States could see an official about-face in the coming months in how it confronts illegal immigration.
Supreme Court justices, weighing arguments over Arizona's tough immigration law, seemed to find little problem Wednesday with provisions that require police to check the legal status of people they stop for other reasons.
Over the last several years, states frustrated with the country's porous borders have rejected the long-held notion that Washington is responsible for confronting illegal immigration. They passed laws to enable local police to address the problem.
If the court upholds those parts of Arizona's law, the ruling would codify that type of local enforcement and open the door to such tactics in states with similar laws, such as Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah.
"I think you'll see more involvement by local police in immigration enforcement, an involvement that hadn't previously been seen," said Kevin Johnson, law school dean at the University of California-Davis and an immigration law expert.
A federal judge put parts of the Arizona law on hold shortly before they were to take effect in July 2010. Other states followed with similar legislation and- combined with other state immigration laws and an ailing economy- played a part in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants moving elsewhere.
"If you want to turn around this invasion, then (you should) do attrition through enforcement," said former state Sen. Russell Pearce, architect of the 2010 law and the driving force behind other Arizona immigration laws.
Arizona has argued it pays a disproportionate price for illegal immigration because of its 370-mile border with Mexico and its role as the busiest illegal entry point into the country.
The Obama administration said the law conflicts with a more nuanced federal immigration policy that seeks to balance national security, law enforcement, foreign policy, human rights and the rights of law-abiding citizens and immigrants.
During arguments over the law, liberal and conservative justices reacted skeptically to the administration's argument that the state exceeded its authority when it made the records check, and another provision allowing suspected illegal immigrants to be arrested without a warrant.
Civil rights groups say Arizona's and the other states' measures encourage racial profiling and ethnic stereotyping.
Immigrant rights advocates, who believed the courts would reject attempts by states to grab more law enforcement power, were not expecting the justices' response. They said a Supreme Court validation of the law would frighten immigrants further and cause Latinos who are in the country legally to be asked about their status.
"The crisis here in Arizona would only multiply," said Carlos Garcia, organizer of an immigration march that drew several hundred people in downtown Phoenix on Wednesday. Authorities said at least nine people were arrested for blocking a street and refusing to move.
"It would mean that anyone, as they are leaving their home- whether they are going to work, to church, wherever they are going- could be asked for their documents," he said.
The court's comments surprised state officials and had, thus far, lost all major court battles over the law.
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, whose office has helped defend the law, predicted the court will uphold the law because many of its provisions mirror existing federal laws. He said a year from now the state will see even less illegal immigration.
"You won't see anything that noticeable as far as law enforcement goes," Horne said. "But you will see less people sneaking across the border."
It was unclear what the court would do with other aspects of the law that have been put on hold by lower federal courts. The other blocked provisions make it a state crime for immigrants not to have immigration registration papers and for illegal immigrants to seek work or hold a job.
Peter Spiro, a Tempe University law professor who specializes in immigration law, predicted the court would uphold the police check of immigration status in Arizona's law, but said he wouldn't be surprised if the court threw out a provision making it a crime to be without immigration documents.
Such a ruling would let police question people about their immigration status if they have good reason to do so, but police would have to call federal authorities to see if they would want to pick up anyone found to be in the country illegally. If federal agents decline, officers would have to release the person, unless they were suspected of committing crimes, Spiro said.
If that happened, the law would be mostly symbolic, but would still carry some significance for immigrants, Spiro said. "It would make it clear that Arizona is unfriendly to undocumented aliens," Spiro said.
Justice Scalia tells the truth about illegals, and exposes the hypocrisies of the Obama Admin on SB1070, and the open-borders losers at TPM go nuts. Scalia: “What’s wrong about the states enforcing federal law? There is a federal law against robbing federal banks. Can it be made a state crime to rob those banks? I think it is.” Scalia went on: “But does the attorney general come in and say, you kn...ow, we might really only want to go after the professional bank robbers?” Scalia said. “If it’s just an amateur bank robber, you know, we’re going to let it go. And the state’s interfering with our whole scheme here because it’s prosecuting all these bank robbers.” Kudos to Scalia for breaking it down and demonstrating the absurdity of the Feds' lawsuit.See More
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Stand With Arizona (and Against Illegal Immigration)
If the Supreme Court decides in favor of Arizona’s tough immigration bill, the Obama attorney arguing against S.B. 1070 predicted “mass incarceration” of illegals in Arizona. But Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said that would be “no problem” – he’s got room for them all in “Tent City”. "I’m not concerned. I got room in the tents. I got plenty of room…I’ll put more tents up,” Arpaio said. “So that should never be an excuse that you can’t house these people.” WTG Joe! [FULL details and PETITION at link]
If the Supreme Court decides in favor of Arizona’s tough immigration bill, the Obama attorney arguing against S.B. 1070 predicted “mass incarceration” of “Latinos” – illegal aliens, in Arizona.
But Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said that would be “no problem” – he’s got room for them in “Tent City”.
“We lock up people all the time,” Arpaio said in a phone interview. “Since I started enforcement, we’ve arrested on the streets, investigated – in our jails over 51,000.
“I didn’t see any problem, other than the fact that some activists and politicians in Washington (don’t) like me enforcing the illegal immigration law,” Arpaio said.
“And by the way, if they think that it will overcrowd the jails, I’m not concerned. I got room in the tents. I got plenty of room…I’ll put more tents up,” Arpaio said. “So that should never be an excuse (that) you can’t house these people.”
Arpaio’s department apprehends a staggering 25% of ALL illegal aliens captured in the entire United States each year. And since over 70% of those illegals were headed for states other than Arizona when caught, the Sheriff and his deputies protect all Americans with their operations – a good reason why cynical politicians who want those votes want Arpaio stopped. That is why George Soros-funded groups have pledged to spend $10 million to defeat Arpaio for re-election this year.
The Obama Administration is desperate to stop the landmark Arizona immigration law – and the states which have copied it. During oral arguments before the high court on the law – which allows state police to check the immigration status of individuals stopped, detained or arrested for other reasons – Solicitor General Donald Verrilli responded to Justice Antonin Scalia’s remarks that Arizona seems to be merely enacting laws that are already federal statutes.
“Well, what I think they are going to do in Arizona is something quite extraordinary, that has significant, real and practical foreign relations effects,” Verrilli said. Scalia then mocked Verilli, asking if “we have to enforce our laws in a manner that will please Mexico?”
Scalia gets it. So does Sheriff Joe. We have borders, and laws, for a reason. And no amount of political manipulation is going to sway men and women of character. They will enforce the law. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is one such man. After S.B. 1070 was passed in April 2010, over 100,000 illegal aliens fled Arizona, in large part because of the efforts of Arpaio and his many deputies.
And if the Supreme Court upholds 1070 in June, we may well see another 100,000 flee in short order.
For those who choose to stay, don’t worry: there will always be plenty of room – and pink underwear – for you in Tent City.
.
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May 2, 2012
600 lbs. of Marijuana Seized and 49 Illegal Aliens Arrested over the last five days by Sheriff’s Deputies
Arpaio continues to crack down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking
(Maricopa County, AZ) Sheriff Joe Arpaio says Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies seized over 600 lbs. of marijuana over the last 24 hours and arrested seven illegal aliens during a drug suppression investigation. Sheriff’s Human Smuggling detectives have also arrested 42 illegal aliens in the act of being smuggled into Maricopa County over the past five days.
While working a drug suppression operation in the Southwest area Sheriff’s deputies, with the assistance of the Border Patrol, seized over 600 lbs. of marijuana and arrested seven illegal aliens who were attempting to smuggle the marijuana into the U.S.
Sheriff Arpaio says “Drug trafficking is increasing involving illegal aliens and I am preparing for another drug and illegal alien crime suppression operation.”
In the last month, Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested more than 27 illegal aliens and seized over two tons of marijuana.
Over the past 5 days, Sheriff’s detectives have arrested 42 illegal aliens in the act of being smuggled into Maricopa County. 15 were arrested just this morning near Fountain Hills. Detectives are still investigating this incident.
On Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff’s detectives were investigating two vehicles near Fountain Hills for human smuggling. The first vehicle contained 10 illegal aliens,
including the coyote, which were heading to New York, Delaware, Louisiana, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky. Six were identified as Mexican Nationals and three were from Guatemala. The coyote claimed that this was his first time that he had done this type of thing.
The second vehicle contained 10 to 12 illegal aliens who all ran into the desert from Sheriff’s detectives. After a lengthy search of the area using air support and with the assistance of DPS, only three were found and arrested. This group was heading to Ohio.
On Friday, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s detectives discovered a vehicle near Gila Bend which was being used to smuggle illegal aliens into the country. It was carrying 6 illegals and a coyote. While searching the vehicle an AK47 was located under the back seat. This group was heading to Phoenix.
On Saturday night, Sheriff’s detectives were investigating a drop house in Gila Bend and found 9 more illegals. This group was also heading to Phoenix.
These groups admitted to crossing the border near Altar, Sonoyta, and Sasabe.
Of all those arrested, seven illegal aliens were booked into the 4th Avenue Jail on drug charges, while 19 illegal aliens and one U.S. citizen, Jared Moran (01/11/1993), were booked into the 4th Avenue Jail on Human Smuggling related charges. Six juveniles and 2 others were turned over to ICE officials. The investigation continues for the 15 arrested today.
Sheriff Arpaio says “Illegal aliens continue to cross the border into the United States, violating the law, whether it is the illegal immigration or drug laws.”
To date the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has arrested over 5,500 illegal aliens involved in human smuggling.
Illegal aliens across America are committing FRAUD by filing tax returns with an IRS "ITIN" number, and listing children as dependents who live in MEXICO. This fraud is costing taxpayers an insane $4.2 BILLION PER YEAR. In addition, these are FELONY crimes - yet the Feds do NOTHING to stop it.
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(Tempe, AZ) Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says his deputies
conducted the 60th employer sanction/identity theft operation this
morning.
A tip was received from a source that employees were using forged
social security numbers for employment at Interior Solutions located
in the 400 block of West Fairmont Drive in Tempe. The complainant
also stated that they had a conversation with the owner about the
forged identities and no action was taken. Sheriff’s deputies arrested 4
suspects today and are facing charges of identity theft and believed to
be illegal aliens. The investigation is continuing.
Recently three raids were conducted on businesses resulting in the
arrests of 40 illegal aliens by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
The majority were using false identification. The total number of
arrests in employer sanction/identity theft cases now stands at 627.
In the previous 59 employer sanctions/identity theft operations, 100%
of all suspects found to be committing identity theft to gain
employment were illegal aliens.
Arpaio says his office continues to enforce all aspects of the illegal
immigration laws.
Arpaio stresses that one of the benefits of these employer
sanctions/identity theft operations is that they open up job
opportunities for legal citizens.
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2006 Steel Blue 5.7L HEMI Limited 4x4 Build Date: June 9, 2006 Hour 14
Interior: Dark Slate/Light Graystone with Saddle Brown Leather Seats
Quadra-Drive II, NAV, DVD, Trailer Tow Group IV, Off-Road Group II, Remote Start, UConnect, Rear Backup
Camera, Chrome Wheels, Magnaflow cat-back exhaust, Daytime Running Lights enabled
__________________
2006 Steel Blue 5.7L HEMI Limited 4x4 Build Date: June 9, 2006 Hour 14
Interior: Dark Slate/Light Graystone with Saddle Brown Leather Seats
Quadra-Drive II, NAV, DVD, Trailer Tow Group IV, Off-Road Group II, Remote Start, UConnect, Rear Backup
Camera, Chrome Wheels, Magnaflow cat-back exhaust, Daytime Running Lights enabled
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