Opponents of Georgia's illegal immigration law seek White House support


By Jeremy Redmon


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

5:33 p.m. Tuesday, August 2, 2011

For months, civil and immigrant rights groups have urged the Obama administration to join their court fight against Georgia’s tough new law targeting illegal immigration.

A group of Atlanta-area immigration attorneys went so far as to sue the White House in federal court here, seeking to compel it to challenge Georgia’s House Bill 87. The White House never budged.

But on Monday the Justice Department filed suit to block a similar law in Alabama, just as it did in Arizona last year.

On Tuesday, federal officials indicated they had not made a final decision about whether to challenge Georgia’s law, saying they were still studying it and similar measures in Indiana, South Carolina and Utah.

“To the extent we find state laws that interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of immigration law, we are prepared to bring suit,â€