Bob Schieffer interviewed Attorney General Eric Holder on CBS’s Face the Nation, and of course questioned him about the Obama administration’s decision to file suit against Arizona over that state’s new illegal immigration law.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department is challenging Arizona’s controversial new immigration law in court because it is inconsistent with, and is preempted by, federal law.
“What we’re saying is that they cannot pass laws that are inconsistent with the federal laws, or do things that contravene federal policy when it comes to the enforcement of our immigration laws,” Holder said. “And the Arizona statute, if you look at the guts of it, really puts in place a whole variety of things that are inconsistent with what we have decided to do as a federal government.”
The Immigration Policy Center, which opposes AZSB1070, lists the major provisions of the law and provides a Q&A Guide to the legislation.
AG Holder also told CBS’s Schieffer that the feds have not ruled out an additional challenge to the law based on racial discrimination after the law goes into effect at the end of this month. And here, as Doug Mataconis points out, we can discern Holder’s tacit response to critics who have interpreted the lack of such grounds in the current lawsuit as an implied admission that the legislation does not allow or encourage racial profiling:
Holder’s comment would seem to be a response to some critics on the right who thought it newsworthy that the recently filed Federal lawsuit did not include any counts claiming that the law discriminated against Hispanics. The reason for that, of course, is that it’s very rare that a law of this type would be discriminatory on [its] face so there isn’t any legal basis for making that type of argument before the law is actually enforced. Once that begins to happen, though, such a claim will exist if it appears that Arizona law enforcement is applying the law in a discriminatory fashion, something which is entirely probable given the nature of the law despite the so-called “safeguards” the law contains against such discrimination.
So, rather than being a hollow threat as some bloggers are contending today, I would take Holder’s comments as a recognition of legal reality. And a warning that Arizona will face more legal challenges in the future if the law isn’t applied fairly.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) has what I call a “nutshell” response (i.e., that’s it in a nutshell) to members of Congress as well as conservative media pundits who attack the Obama administration for “doing nothing” to enforce federal immigration law. Dudes, there are roughly 12 million unauthorized immigrants in this country. You can’t solve the problem with hackneyed political slogans or one-liners (such as those I have emphasized in the quote below):
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) said on ABC’s “This Week” that Republicans would pass two Democratic bills on which they agree: “The Heath Shuler bill, where you have 230 people support it, Republicans and Democrats. Then you have Silvestre Reyes’ bill, which has Republican — we could pass that tomorrow if Speaker Pelosi allowed it to be done. First you do is stop paying them to be here. Then what you do is you give enforcement the chance. You have not had interior enforcement.”
“…Once you send the message that we’re going to reward and create a special status for those who are illegally here, you will not be able to build a fence tall enough,” Bilbray said.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), also on ABC, said Bilbray “thinks this is kind of like Fantasy Island, right, where 12 million people are just going to disappear like a mirage.”
“…They will not leave,” said Gutierrez, chairman of the Democratic Caucus Immigration Task Force. “There are 12 million. Listen to that 7-year-old girl who asked the first lady.”
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