Obama Chooses to File Suit against the Recent Arizona Immigration Law
The Obama administration officials had recently stated their intent of filing a suit against the Arizona immigration law as a measure to mitigate the negative effects of the law. Though the officials had proclaimed this decision long back, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State had affirmed it on an interview with a TV station in Ecuador.
According to Clinton, President Obama has expressed his disapproval of the Arizona law because he feels that the federal government is the right authority to determine an immigration policy. She had also said that a lawsuit would be filed by the Justice Department against the law. She further added that, President Obama’s main motive is to bring a comprehensive immigration reform.
Jan Brewer, Arizona governor who passed the illegal immigrant law, retaliated against Clinton’s announcement and said that she was ready to put up a fight.
In accordance with Clinton’s announcement, the Justice Department recently filed suit against the Arizona immigration law, which is scheduled to be effective from the end of July. The suit requests the U.S. District Court in Arizona to bar the state from putting the law into effect. The state of Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer were named as defendants in the suit. The reason stated in the suit filed was that Arizona immigration law disrupted the authority that the federal government has on immigration enforcement.
The law suit claims that the Arizona immigration law aims at removing illegal immigrants, but is unmindful of the other immigration objectives. The suit also puts forth that according to the United States Constitution, Arizona cannot use its own state-specific immigration policy to replace the federal government’s immigration regime. And that this policy would only interfere with the federal governments responsibilities.
Attorney General Eric Holder also opined that this illegal immigrant law will affect the country’s safety as it would divert federal resources from other dangerous sources, such as terrorism suspects and individual with criminal records.