New Lawsuit Filed in Fight Over Employer Sanctions Law

PHOENIX (AP) – Lawyers filed a second lawsuit challenging Arizona’s new employer-sanctions law Sunday night, two days after a judge said the groups fighting the law sued the wrong government officials.

Attorneys for business groups named the state’s 15 county attorneys in the latest lawsuit, something they failed to do the first time around.

In his ruling Friday night, U.S. District Judge Neil Wake said the first lawsuit was filed against the governor and state attorney general _ who are given only investigatory authority under the law _ and wasn’t aimed at county prosecutors who actually have the power to enforce the restrictions.

Julie Pace, an attorney for the business groups, said Sunday the latest lawsuit contains the same arguments the first one did against the employer-sanctions law _ that it’s an unconstitutional attempt by the state to regulate immigration and that cracking down on hiring illegal immigrants is the sole responsibility of the federal government.

Pace said the latest lawsuit also includes evidence that business groups face imminent crackdowns. She said business groups believe county prosecutors already have illegal hiring complaints on file, and that requests will be made to the county attorneys to provide that information.

The judge had said in Friday’s ruling that the business groups had no legal footing to make the challenge because they hadn’t shown that they faced imminent crackdowns.

The plaintiffs are providing evidence including a declaration by an Arizona employer who states that he is knowingly hiring an undocumented worker and intends to do so after Jan. 1 and has been specifically threatened by the County Attorney that he is going to be prosecuted under the new law, Pace said Monday.

Promises by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas _ the chief prosecutor in the state’s most populous county _ to enforce the law applied to all people in his county and didn’t single out the groups challenging the law, Wake ruled.

Pace said the business groups are optimistic about getting the law _ which takes effect Jan. 1 _ put on hold.

“If we can get him to the merits of our case, we’re going to win,â€