Six minutes into the World Cup match between Uruguay and the Netherlands, one of the commentators on the Spanish-language network Univision interrupted to tell the audience the U.S. Department of Justice had just filed a lawsuit against Arizona S.B. 1070.
Associated Press reports:
The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s new law targeting illegal immigrants, setting the stage for a clash between the federal government and the state over the nation’s toughest immigration crackdown.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix argues that Arizona’s law requiring state and local police to question and possibly arrest illegal immigrants during the enforcement of other laws such as traffic violations usurps federal authority.
Hispanic organizations across the United States and Florida have organized in opposition to the Arizona immigration law through online petitions, get-out-the-vote workshops and sit-ins to demand that elected officials support legislation that could help build comprehensive immigration reform.
Jorge Ramos, a Mexican journalist, has also pressured President Obama to fulfill his 2008 campaign promise to push for comprehensive immigration reform.
The Associated Press reported last week that support for an Arizona-type law has been growing in at least 20 states.
According to the AP report, “Gov. Jan Brewer’s spokesman called the decision to sue ‘a terribly bad decision.’”
“Arizona obviously has a terrible border security crisis that needs to be addressed, so Gov. Brewer has repeatedly said she would have preferred the resources and attention of the federal government would be focused on that crisis rather than this,” spokesman Paul Senseman said.
