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.
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