Sunday, February 5, 2012

Tough South Carolina Immigration Law Faces Separate Lawsuits from U.S. Department of Justice and Pro-Immigrant Organizations

SB20

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Monday against South Carolina over its immigration law, which requires police officers to probe the immigration status of individuals they suspect to be undocumented. The Justice Department is suing on the grounds that the federal government, not individual states, has authority on matters of immigration. The [...]

Motion by Latino Republican Group Supporting SB 1070 Denied

Anti-SB 1070 poster

A request by the Arizona Latino Republican Association to intervene with the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against SB 1070 was denied Tuesday by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, who put the law’s most controversial portions on hold just a day before it was to be enacted, rejected the group’s arguments that its [...]

Supreme Court to Hear Case over Immigration Law in Arizona

US Supreme Court

A challenge to a punitive law in Arizona against employers that knowingly hire undocumented workers will be heard today by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law, called the Legal Arizona Worker’s Act, is being challenged by an array of business and advocacy groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Immigration Law Center and [...]

Department of Justice Issues Warning as AZ’s Arpaio Served with Lawsuit

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

The self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America was threatened with a lawsuit by Justice Department officials if he does not cooperate with their ongoing investigation into allegations he discriminates against Hispanics. A federal grand jury in Phoenix is looking into allegations that Arpaio used his power to investigate and intimidate political opponents and that his office [...]

No Rulings Yet From Hearings on Arizona Law

S.B. 1070 protesters

Yesterday, a federal judge in Phoenix Arizona grilled attorneys on both sides of Arizona’s anti-immigration law. A coalition of civil rights groups and the Justice Department both made their case against S.B. 1070 in separate hearings. Both parties called on U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton to issue an injunction on the law (set to be [...]

Justice Department Sues Arizona Over Anti-Immigration Law

After much anticipation and speculation that a suit was eminent, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this afternoon that it was filing a lawsuit against Arizona asking a federal judge to declare the state’s new anti-immigration law, SB 1070, as unconstitutional and strike it down. The defendants are named as the state and Arizona Gov. [...]