The Department of Justice is challenging Utah’s immigration law, as it has immigration statutes passed by other states, prompting the State of Arizona to call for the Supreme Court to resolve the conflicts between federal and state governments.
The DOJ’s challenge to Utah’s law comes despite “several months of constructive discussions with Utah state officials,” DOJ said in its announcement as a suit was filed Tuesday in the District of Utah. “Notwithstanding today’s lawsuit, department officials expect this important dialogue to continue.”
The Utah law “could lead to harassment and detention of foreign visitors and legal immigrants who are in the process of having their immigration status reviewed in federal proceedings and whom the federal government has permitted to stay in this country while such proceedings are pending,” the DOJ said.
“A patchwork of immigration laws is not the answer and will only create further problems in our immigration system,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “The federal government is the chief enforcer of immigration laws and while we appreciate cooperation from states, which remains important, it is clearly unconstitutional for a state to set its own immigration policy. We will continue to monitor and coordinate with our federal partners as we remain concerned about the potential impact of these state laws.”
The DOJ has also challenged immigration laws in Alabama, South Carolina and Arizona, asserting that the Constitution gives the federal government, not the states, the power to set immigration policy. Meanwhile, three Republican senators, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana, have said they will introduce legislation to bar the DOJ from suing against state immigration laws, as Main Justice reported recently.
All this has prompted the State of Arizona to call for the Supreme Court to step in, as Josh Gerstein reports on Politico.
“The question—whether States that bear a disproportionate burden of the costs of illegal immigration are powerless to use their own resources to enforce federal immigration standards without the express blessing of the federal executive—goes to the heart of our Nation’s system of dual sovereignty and cooperative federalism,” Arizona argues in its brief. The Obama administration has filed a brief urging the justices not to take the case.
“We should know next month whether the justices will tackle the immigration issue this year,” Gerstein writes.
