A US judge grilled lawyers for the administration of US President Barack Obama and Arizona on Thursday over the legality of the state’s tough, new immigration law set to take effect next week, but gave no timetable for a ruling.
The Obama administration is seeking a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the law that requires state and local police, during lawful contact, to investigate the immigration status of anyone they reasonably suspect of being an illegal immigrant.
US District Judge Susan Bolton peppered lawyers for both sides during a 90-minute hearing over whether the state law contravenes federal authority over immigration law, and if predictions by critics that it will lead to racial profiling were overstated and unwarranted.
The US Justice Department is among plaintiffs that include civil rights and advocacy groups that have filed seven lawsuits seeking to block the law from taking effect next Thursday. Bolton’s ruling could come at any time.
She asked Justice Department counsel Edwin Kneedler to explain how the state law trumped the federal government’s authority, asking: “Why can’t Arizona be as inhospitable as they wish” to people who have entered the US illegally?
She also questioned the lawyer for Arizona over the administration’s concern about the impact on US foreign policy. Mexico and nine other Latin American countries have joined a brief supporting one of the lawsuits opposing the law.
“It seems to have gotten some people from foreign countries upset with us,” she said during the oral arguments.
The fight over the Arizona law has complicated the White House’s effort to break the deadlock with Republicans in the US Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration law.
The Obama administration lawyer contended that the federal government was responsible for setting immigration laws and that the Arizona measure threatened to undermine US foreign policy.
“What we have is an unprecedented package of enforcement measures to adopt a state policy ... in exclusive disagreement with the federal government,” Kneedler said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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