Thread: Arizona's courts could collapse under weight of anti IA laws

Arizona's courts could collapse under weight of anti-illegal immigration lawsuits: attorneys

By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, June 15th 2010, 11:12 AM
Arizona has faced protests both within the state, as well as nationwide, over its anti-illegal immigration efforts. A new law could slam its court system with lawsuits, attorneys fear.
Watts for News
Arizona has faced protests both within the state, as well as nationwide, over its anti-illegal immigration efforts. A new law could slam its court system with lawsuits, attorneys fear.
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Arizona's court system could find itself damned if it does, and damned if it doesn't do enough.

Attorneys in the Grand Canyon State fear the influx of legal battles that will undoubtedly arise as a result of the coming anti-illegal immigration law could overwhelm the Arizona court system.

"We already have a backlog of cases," immigration attorney Maria Jones told The Arizona Republic. "I think it's going to triple."

The fear comes from the manner in which the law is worded. According to SB 1070, police officers can, when questioning suspected criminals, inquire about their immigration status. Attorneys argue this will likely create a new influx of legal complaints and challenges that will flood Arizona's courts.

On top of that, if police officers fail to ask about the status of a suspect or enforce the law fully, they could be sued by any resident for failing to enforce the law.

According to SB 1070, "a person may bring an action in superior court to challenge any official or agency" for failing to enforce "federal immigration laws to less than the full extent permitted by federal law."

"I don't envy them at all," said Kara Hartzler, an immigration attorney and director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

Police officers themselves would not be personally or financially responsible if they are targeted by a lawsuit, the legislation states, but this means the already heavy backlog of cases in Arizona will only get worse.

As the July 29 start date approaches for the immigration law, Hispanics are reportedly fleeing Arizona.

Exact numbers are not yet available, but early reports from local schools, businesses and residents indicate Hispanics could be leaving in droves, USA Today reported last week.

"They're leaving to another state where they feel more welcome," said District Superintendent Jeffrey Smith.

With Meena Hartenstein

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... z0qwPRUqvT

Any time an immigration attorney spouts off it is because they are loosing their crop to rob from

Originally Posted by TakingBackSoCal

Any time an immigration attorney spouts off it is because they are loosing their crop to rob from

Exactly. Arizona will be collecting millions in fees from illegal aliens to pay for any additional courts they may need.

Posted to the comment section at link:

ratbstard

1:01 PM
Jun 15, 2010

Just another blatantly biased article by an open border advocate. The NYDN should be forced to add a disclaimer to every article that addresses Illegal Immigration, something like "We advocate for Illegal Aliens." I wanted to post an article that was in the paper Sunday, 6/6/10.."Hey Pal Where Are You From?". It was written by Jeff Wilkins and Elizabeth Hays. It spoke to the demographic changes here in NYC as if it just occurred naturally. The article is impossible to find here or anywhere on the web. Explain that DN.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/forums/threa ... z0qwTdZPhR

Arizona immigration law could overwhelm state's court system, attorneys say

by J. Craig Anderson - Jun. 15, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Arizona's impending crackdown on illegal immigrants has the potential to overwhelm the state's court system with criminal and civil cases once enforcement begins, Arizona immigration attorneys Maria V. Jones and Kara Hartzler said.

Without accompanying immigration reform to make following the rules more practicable, enforcement of Senate Bill 1070 could triple the number of cases almost overnight, with no additional court staffing or funds to accommodate them, they warned.

In addition, the law's enactment would place individual members of law enforcement in the precarious position of being vulnerable to lawsuits regardless of how strictly or leniently they applied the new rules, the lawyers said.

Immigration was one of the key issues reviewed at the State Bar of Arizona's 2010 Convention last week.

Arizona's immigration law makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It states that an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest shall, when practicable, ask about a person's legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

The controversial new law was signed April 23 by Gov. Jan Brewer and is scheduled to take effect July 29. But the law already faces a number of legal challenges even before it has taken effect.

Jones and Hartzler said SB 1070's implementation will create the legal-system equivalent of stepping into a minefield.

It could take years' worth of case law, as complaints and challenges are adjudicated, to fine-tune some of the law's more ambiguous and legally onerous provisions, said Jones, chairwoman of the bar association's Immigration Law Section and owner of the Law Offices of Maria V. Jones in Phoenix.

"We already have a backlog of cases," Jones said. "I think it's going to triple."

Hartzler, who is based in Florence, said an unusual provision of the law that allows residents to sue their local government for not enforcing it strictly enough could place law-enforcement officials in a no-win situation.

If police are too aggressive about detaining people who lack proof of citizenship, as they would be authorized to do, it's inevitable that they would end up arresting and holding a number of U.S. citizens, which Hartzler said is bound to generate wrongful-arrest lawsuits.

If they are too careful about whom they detain, she said, police would open themselves up to lawsuits claiming they failed to adequately enforce the new law.

"I don't envy them at all," said Hartzler, director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

Jones, a legal immigrant from Russia, said she does not favor amnesty for illegal immigrants but thinks existing rules and circumstances discourage many from following the legally-sanctioned process toward legal status or U.S. citizenship.

For one, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has an 18-year backlog of applications to process, she said.

In addition, penalties for non-residents who break the rules are impractical and make it virtually impossible for many would-be citizens to immigrate legally, Jones said.

Federal law states that any non-citizen caught lying about his or her legal status after 1996 while attempting to cross into the U.S. is barred from legal naturalization for life.

"The punishment is too harsh," she said.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/artic ... ystem.html