The American Civil Liberties Union, along with national and Arizona-based civil rights organizations, filed a legal challenge Monday to Arizona’s tough new immigration law. The federal lawsuit aims to prevent the statute’s implementation which is scheduled for the end of July.
“This is the most extreme and dangerous of all the recent state and local laws reporting to deal with immigration issues,” said Lucas Guttentag, director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “It has triggered outrage and opposition from virtually every segment of society. The breadth of this lawsuit is a reflection of that widespread revulsion.”
The lawsuit is just one of several brought against the state but represents a coalition of 14 national and Arizona organizations — running the gamut from labor unions to religious groups and civil rights coalitions representing various communities of color — and 10 individuals, including an undocumented Arizona State University student, who claim the law legalizes racial profiling.
The Arizona legislature recently amended the law to forbid discrimination by race or appearance, but Guttentag said it did little to remedy violations of constitutional rights.
Under the law, police are authorized to detain or demand documentation from people suspected of being undocumented immigrants, but the criteria they can use to determine illegality remains vague.
“Immigration status is exactly that – a legal status. Status is not visible to the eye. The police are put in an impossible position because an officer cannot form a reasonable suspicion about an individual’s immigration status just by looking at them,” said Nina Perales, southwest regional counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “Using race or language to investigate individuals for immigration violation violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.”
Linton Joaquin, general counsel of National Immigration Law Center, said the law is “fundamentally misguided” and will hamper relations between local law enforcement and communities of color.
