Federal Lawsuit (link) Against Arizona

When he was appointed as the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, Dennis Burke said, “We’ve created a market for human smuggling that accompanies an already-existing drug-smuggling industry, which flourishes in Arizona. What we have here is a third-world economy next to the most prosperous economy in the world.”

Now he has put his signature on page 24 of the federal government's lawsuit against Arizona's immigration law. See United States vs. Arizona (July 6, 2010).

The lawsuit demands the court declare the Arizona law void and issue an injunction prohibiting its enforcement. The lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief—no monetary damages. However, the federal government does ask the federal court to award it costs.

The federal government's lawsuit alleges that the federal immigration scheme gives prosecutorial discretion to the federal law enforcement authorities. The lawsuit suggests that the federal government may choose not to enforce its laws prohibiting illegal immigration when the undocumented person is not otherwise violating U.S. laws.

The Arizona statute, however, makes it clear that the presence of illegal aliens constitutes a violation. When an illegal alien is lawfully stopped, and a reasonable suspicion raised about the person's lack of status, Arizona police must ask for immigration documentation. All legal immigrants in the U.S. are required to carry immigration documents with them at all time. That is the federal law. Thus, the Arizona law does not conflict with the federal statutes in this respect, but merely uses this requirement to establish lawful status.

The primary thrust of the federal lawsuit is that the federal government has the sum total power NOT to enforce immigration laws passed by Congress. The lawsuit asserts that Congress gave the Executive Branch agencies discretion NOT to enforce the laws as they see fit. The lawsuit claims Arizona's law deprives it of discretion NOT to enforce the laws enacted by Congress.

Missing from the lawsuit are allegations that Arizona's enforcement would result in unconstitutional racial profiling.

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