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The federal government has delivered a stinging blow against The People, granting an injunction against key provisions of Arizona’s new immigration law, enacted to counter the federal government’s dereliction of duty in securing the border and upholding the law of the land.

Key legal provisions blocked by federal judge

  • Officers to check immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested
  • Immigrants to carry legal papers, or “alien-registration papers” at all times
  • Undocumented workers not allowed to seek work

Source: MSNBC

Judge Rules to Block Provisions of Arizona Law

Video

Judge grants injunction on part of Ariz. law (MSNBC, July 28, 2010) — A federal judge has granted an injunction on some of the most controversial parts of the Arizona immigration bill. NBC’s Pete Williams reports. (03:47)

By Jonathan J. Cooper and Michelle Price

July 28, 2010

Excerpts

PHOENIX — A federal judge dealt a serious blow to Arizona’s immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton sets up a lengthy legal battle as Arizona fights to enact the nation’s toughest-in-the-nation law.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said the state will likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge’s order overturned. But for now, opponents of the law have prevailed: The provisions that angered opponents will not take effect, including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.

The judge also delayed parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places. In addition, the judge blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants. …

Other provisions of the law, many of them procedural and slight revisions to existing Arizona immigration statute, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. …

‘It’s a temporary bump in the road’

Lawyers for the state contend the law was a constitutionally sound attempt by Arizona — the busiest illegal gateway into the country — to assist federal immigration agents and lessen border woes such as the heavy costs for educating, jailing and providing health care for illegal immigrants.

“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 the Associated Press. “The bottom line is we’ve known all along that it is the responsibility of the feds and they haven’t done their job so we were going to help them do that.” …

In a sign of the international interest in the law, about 100 protesters in Mexico City who had gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy broke into cheers when speakers told them about the federal judge’s ruling. The demonstrators had been monitoring the news on a laptop computer on the stage.

The crowed clapped and started chanting, “Migrants, hang on, the people are rising up!” …

‘Distinct, unusual and extraordinary’

Opponents argued the law will lead to racial profiling, conflict with federal immigration law and distract local police from fighting more serious crimes. …

“There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens under the new (law),” Bolton ruled. “By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a ‘distinct, unusual and extraordinary’ burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose.” …

The law has inspired rallies in Arizona and elsewhere by advocates on both sides of the immigration debate. …

It also led an unknown number of illegal immigrants to leave Arizona for other American states or their home countries.

Brewer’s lawyers said Arizona shouldn’t have to suffer from America’s broken immigration system when it has 15,000 police officers who can arrest illegal immigrants. …

Full story

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MSNBC Interactive
Immigrants Arriving at Ellis Island
Immigration to the U.S.
Timeline: Immigration policy since 1790.

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Lindsey Graham: Birthright Citizenship is a Mistake


“There’s another problem we have in this nation that I think is novel and needs to be fixed. If you come across the border illegally and you have a child in America, automatically, that child becomes an American citizen. … I may introduce a constitutional amendment that changes the rules if you have a child here. Birthright citizenship I think is a mistake, that we should change our Constitution and say if you come here illegally and you have a child, that child’s automatically not a citizen.”

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8/3/10 Update

Arizona Sheriff: ‘Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy’


Pinal County (Ariz.) Sheriff Paul Babeu

By Penny Starr
CNSNews.com
August 2, 2010

Excerpts

Pinal County (Ariz.) Sheriff Paul Babeu is hopping mad at the federal government.

Babeu told CNSNews.com that rather than help law enforcement in Arizona stop the hundreds of thousands of people who come into the United States illegally, the federal government is targeting the state and its law enforcement personnel.

“What’s very troubling is the fact that at a time when we in law enforcement and our state need help from the federal government, instead of sending help they put up billboard-size signs warning our citizens to stay out of the desert in my county because of dangerous drug and human smuggling and weapons and bandits and all these other things and then, behind that, they drag us into court with the ACLU,” Babeu said.

The sheriff was referring to the law suits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Department of Justice challenging the state’s new immigration law. …

“Our own government has become our enemy and is taking us to court at a time when we need help,” Babeu said.

Babeu and Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County Ariz., spoke by phone with CNSNews.com last week about the May 17 ACLU class-action lawsuit [PDF], which charges the law uses racial profiling and named the county attorneys and sheriffs in all 15 Arizona counties as defendants. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on July 6, charging the Arizona law preempted the federal government’s sole right to enforce immigration law.

“If the president would do his job and secure the border; send 3,000 armed soldiers to the Arizona border and stop the illegal immigration and the drug smuggling and the violence, we wouldn’t even be in this position and where we’re forced to take matters into our own hands,” Babeu said.

Dever said the federal government’s failure to secure the border and its current thwarting of Arizona’s effort to control illegal immigration within its borders has implications for the entire country.

“The bigger picture is while what’s going on in Arizona is critically important, what comes out of this and happens here will affect our entire nation in terms of our ability to protect our citizenry from a very serious homeland security threat,” Dever said. “People who are coming across the border in my county aren’t staying there. They’re going everywhere USA and a lot of them are bad, bad people.”

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), about 250,000 people were detained in Arizona in the last 12 months for being in the country illegally. Babeu said that that number only reflects the number of people detained and that thousands more enter the country illegally each year.

The CBP also reports that 17 percent of those detained already have a criminal record in the United States.

Both Babeu and Dever said they want to remain involved in the legal battle over the law, which many experts predict will end up being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. …

Both men said they believe the outcome of the case has national significance.“For us, this is a public safety matter and a national security threat,” Babeu said.

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2/20/12 Update

U.S. Sheriff Says He’s Gay After Misconduct Claims


Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu

By Bob Christie

February 19, 2012

FLORENCE, Arizona — A nationally known sheriff resigned from presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s Arizona campaign committee and acknowledged he was gay amid allegations of misconduct made by a man with whom he previously had a relationship.

But Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu vowed Saturday to continue his bid for the Republican nomination in Arizona’s rural 4th Congressional District race.

He denied claims he tried to threaten the man, a Mexican immigrant and a former campaign volunteer, with deportation if their past relationship was made public. The man’s allegations were first published Friday in the Phoenix New Times [link added], an alternative weekly magazine.

Babeu, a first-term sheriff who has gained widespread attention with his strong opposition to illegal immigration and smuggling, said the accusations were an attempt to hurt his political career. …

The huge congressional district where Babeu is seeking election runs from western Arizona all the way to the desert south of Phoenix. Its voters are heavily Republican and generally very conservative.

Babeu issued a sweeping denial of any wrongdoing in front of his headquarters. The press conference was attended by about three dozen uniformed deputies, local elected officials and citizens.

“I’m here to say that all the allegations that were in the story were untrue — except for the instance that refers to me as gay,” Babeu said. “That’s the truth — I am gay.”

He said he didn’t have the power as a local sheriff to get anyone deported.

Babeu, who is not married, said he had been in a relationship with Jose that ended sometime before September. Jose also ran his campaign website and Twitter account, and Babeu said Jose began posting derogatory items on the sites after their breakup. …

Full story

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Related reports on this site

Image: Protest at the Arizona Capitol
Brian Ochoa, left, and Gustavo Rocha, both from Phoenix, join hundreds of protesters as they rally at the Arizona Capitol on Friday, April 23, 2010 to protest the signing of an immigration bill by Gov. Jan Brewer. (Photo credit: Ross D. Franklin / AP)

Position Statement on Illegal Immigration

Immigration Enforcement Surge (June 25, 2010)

AZ Tough on Illegal Immigration (April 23, 2010)

Immelman vs. Bachmann: Year 2 (July 15, 2009)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — July 28, 2009

Iraq-Afghanistan Casualties

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I provided my weekly report of U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), compiled from U.S. Department of Defense News Releases.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — July 28, 2008


Empty prison in Iraq a $40M ‘failure’ (Associated Press, July 28, 2008) — In this undated photograph released by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the Khan Bani Saad Correctional Facility, about 12 miles northeast of Baghdad, is seen with unused building materials nearby. The site is a chronicle of U.S. government waste, misguided planning, and construction shortcuts costing $40 million …

On the Campaign Trail: Day 14

Two-year retrospective: Two years ago today, on the 14th day of my 2008 campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I said that voters should see the Iraq war not only as a national security or foreign policy issue, but as a pocketbook issue, in that the war and occupation contributed to driving up the price of oil by weakening the U.S. dollar. In that context, I also pointed to a Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction report detailing billions of dollars lost on construction projects in Iraq.





7 Responses to “Immigration: Gov’t vs. The People”
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