SB 1070

Federal Court Puts Arizona Immigration Law On Hold

Wed, 07/28/2010 - 4:50pm | posted by Doug Mataconis

A Federal Judge in Arizona has blocked the key provisions of Arizona’s immigration law from going into effect tomorrow:

PHOENIX — A federal judge on Wednesday, weighing in on a clash between the federal government and a state over immigration policy, blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law from going into effect.

In a ruling on a law that has rocked politics coast to coast and thrown a spotlight on a border state’s fierce debate over immigration, Judge Susan Bolton of Federal District Court here said that some aspects of the law can go into effect as scheduled on Thursday.

But Judge Bolton took aim at the parts of the law that have generated the most controversy, issuing a preliminary injunction against sections that called for police officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws and that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times.

Judge Bolton put those sections on hold while she continued to hear the larger issues in the challenges to the law.

“Preserving the status quo through a preliminary injunction is less harmful than allowing state laws that are likely pre-empted by federal law to be enforced,” she said.

Specifically, the injunction prevents the following provisions of the law from going into effect:

• The portion of the law that requires an officer make a reasonable attempt to determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested if there’s reasonable suspicion they’re in the country illegally.

• The portion that creates a crime of failure to apply for or carry “alien-registration papers.”

Latino vote could decide the next president

Thu, 06/28/2012 - 1:19pm | posted by Nick Nottleman

With the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on Arizona immigration status laws coming down earlier this week, one has to wonder what the candidates for President will work into their campaigns how those decisions will affect the race for President in November.

Peter Wallsten from the Washington Post writes:

The ruling came as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been struggling to connect with Hispanics after courting conservative primary voters with sharp rhetoric against illegal immigration. A survey published Monday showed him favored by just one-fourth of Hispanics.

The quandary for Romney and the GOP is clear from recent polling. The Arizona law is very popular with whites and independent voters, according to data from the Pew Research Center, while many GOP strategists think their party has little chance for success in battlegrounds such as Colorado, Nevada and Virginia if Romney doesn’t win close to 40 percent of Hispanics.

I suppose one might point to one unmistakable solution for Romney and the GOP which would come in the form of a VP nod to Marco Rubio.

On the other hand, you can point to statistical data pointing the current administration’s deportation record as was written in September of last year by Kevin Lincoln at the Business Insider:

What’s good for Republicans is bad for Republicans

Tue, 08/10/2010 - 2:40pm | posted by Luke Brady

Republicans are looking to take over the House and even the possibly the Senate this election cycle, trying to capitalize on a range of issues the Democrats are seen as wrong on. One of those issues is Immigration.

Republicans have seen a growing amount of Hispanic support in recent elections, an estimated 40% - 44% voted for President Bush in 2004, but the publicity of the Arizona law threatens to turn that around. While as many as 55% of Americans support the Arizona law, 71% Hispanics do not.

If this perception that holds that Republicans are hostile towards immigrants, it could take as many as three generations for Hispanics to return to the Republican party in large numbers.

Stossel takes up immigration

Mon, 07/26/2010 - 10:30am | posted by Jason Pye

On his most recent show, John Stossel tackled the hot topic of immigration, bringing on both the proponents of Arizona’s immigration law (Heather MacDonald and Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce) and supporters of open immigration and reform (Jason Riley, Nick Gillespie and Linda Chavez) and the economic benefits it brings: