Thread: U.S. may sue Arizona over new immigration law

U.S. may sue Arizona over new immigration law

12:58 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Washington Post, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Justice Department may sue Arizona over a new state law that authorizes police to question the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally.

"I'm very concerned about the wedge it could draw between communities that law enforcement is supposed to serve and those of us in law enforcement," Holder said.

And Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the new state law could siphon away federal money and staff needed to hunt down dangerous immigrants.

The critical comments by the nation's top law enforcement official and the Cabinet secretary responsible for enforcing immigration laws came four days after Arizona's governor signed into law the measure designed to crack down on illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid backed off his pledge to fast-track an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws after fellow Democrats voiced skepticism and a key Republican supporter abandoned the effort.

Reid, who is facing a tough re-election battle in Nevada, surprised the White House and many of his Capitol Hill colleagues April 10 when he said that a broad immigration bill "cannot wait." He told a cheering crowd in Las Vegas, "We're going to have comprehensive immigration reform now."

That angered Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chief GOP negotiator on immigration, who accused Reid of engaging in a "cynical political ploy" to win Hispanic votes, given that the House has not even called up an immigration bill. Graham withdrew his support from a separate climate-change proposal that he had been prepared to endorse, and on Tuesday, he announced that he would oppose any immigration measure until U.S. border security had been improved.

With the fate of two Democratic priorities suddenly thrown into question, Reid said Tuesday that he would not dictate the sequencing of the two measures. He added that both will remain on the horizon after the Senate concludes its current debate on financial regulation.

"If you have a bill that's ready to go, that's the one I'm going to go to," Reid said. But "immigration and energy are equally vital to our economic and national security, and we've ignored both of them for far too long. I'm committed to doing both this session of Congress."

President Barack Obama told an Iowa audience on Tuesday that he can persuade most congressional Democrats to back an overhaul of immigration laws but that Republicans must join the effort. Obama, on a two-day tour aimed primarily at pushing his financial reform agenda, said immigration is too volatile and too subject to political exploitation to be revised without a bipartisan push.

Other Democrats, including senior Obama administration officials, concede privately that an immigration bill is unlikely to move forward in 2010.

They fret about the political cost in November should a Senate controlled by Democrats try and fail to pass a bill.

Graham met with Obama last month to discuss immigration legislation, and he and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., drafted what they called "a framework for action on immigration."

But he suggested Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the prudent course is to go slowly.

Graham said Congress could pass a comprehensive bill "by 2012 if we're smart and we address the big elephant in the room, and that is that our borders are broken and there's a war going on," a reference to the rampant drug-related violence that has gripped Mexico.


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 6acbe.html

This is the same Eric Holder that refuses to investigate voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party in Philly. I guess it's only discrimination if you're of color.

This is why we must gut the Federal Government asap and remove all the communist, open-borders, anti-American-Sovereignty trash...

Harry Reid is next on the block, along with a few other treasonous losers...

the problem they will have is that the AZ law mirrors the Federal law.

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

This is the same Eric Holder that refuses to investigate voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party in Philly. I guess it's only discrimination if you're of color.

the same loser who talked Clinton into pardoning FALN terrorists,
who refuses to investigate ACORN