USA TODAY
Jul 06, 2010
Ariz. Dem blasts Obama immigration lawsuit
01:49 PM

Even before the Obama administration's much-anticipated lawsuit against Arizona's controversial crackdown on illegal immigration has been filed, reaction is pouring in from the state's lawmakers. Among those first out of the box with a negative review: a freshman Democratic member of Congress.

Not surprisingly, Arizona's two Republican senators are sharply critical. Here's an excerpt from the joint statment just issued by Jon Kyl, the GOP's deputy Senate leader, and John McCain, President Obama's 2008 opponent in the race for the White House:

Attorney General Holder speaks of the "federal government's responsibility" to enforce immigration laws; but what are the people of Arizona left to do when the federal government fails in its responsibility?

The Obama administration has not done everything it can do to protect the people of Arizona from the violence and crime illegal immigration brings to our state. Until it does, the federal government should not be suing Arizona on the grounds that immigration enforcement is solely a federal responsibility.
An equally sharp rebuke comes from Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick. She's a first-term Democrat who represents a sprawling northern Arizona district and who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee. Here's what she had to say:

This lawsuit is a sideshow, distracting us from the real task at hand. A court battle between the federal government and Arizona will not move us closer to securing the border or fixing America's broken immigration system. The legal fights and boycotts are drawing focus and attention away from what has to be a policy-driven, substantive debate.

Washington failed us on this issue again today, and Arizonans have had enough. The White House and Congress need to start developing a better approach to border security and immigration reform, working with us instead of against us. Our law enforcement and communities are at risk right now -- this is a time for solutions, not new obstacles.
Kirkpatrick is running for a second term in a district that McCain won by 10 percentage points in 2008. Non-partisan political handicappers Charles Cook and Stuart Rothenberg both favor her to win but say her race is not a slam-dunk. In fact, Cook moved her race in March from the "likely Democrat" win category to "lean Democrat" -- indicating a more competitive contest. Republicans will choose their candidate from a crowded field in an Aug. 24 primary.

Update, 3:56 p.m.ET: Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat who is his one of his party's leading proponent of immigration reform, thinks the lawsuit is a good idea. Gutierrez, one of a number of Hispanic leaders who has been pushing the president to make good on a campaign promise to push for an immigration bill this year, says it's a sign "that the Obama administration is beginning to fully engage on the immigration issue." Like the president's critics, Gutierrez is calling for a broader solution: "Tripling, quadrupling, or quintupling the manpower on the border hasn't worked," he said in a statement. "Unless we create legal immigration alternatives to illegal immigration, all the Arizona laws in the world will not fix the problem."

Au contraire, says Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He thinks the president is putting too much emphasis on providing a path to citizenship for people now living here illegally and not enough on sealing the nation's borders: "If the President wants to make real progress on this issue, he can do so by taking amnesty off the table and focus his efforts on border and interior security," McConnell said in a statement.

(Posted by Kathy Kiely)

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