WASHINGTON (ABP) — A federal judge in Arizona blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona's new immigration law July 28, one day before it was scheduled to go into effect. The same day, faith leaders opposed to the bill and senior Senate Democrats called on Congress to break its impasse and vote for comprehensive immigration reform this year.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton temporarily enjoined the state’s officials from enforcing parts of the law that would require legal immigrants to carry papers proving their status at all times and would force police officers to arrest and check the immigration status of anyone whom they suspect of being an illegal immigrant.
“There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens,” she said in her order. “By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a ‘distinct, unusual and extraordinary’ burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose.”
However, she let other parts of the law stand — including one that makes it a crime to pick up illegal day-laborers in a car and one that allows citizens to sue law-enforcement agencies and officials for what they believe is insufficient enforcement of immigration laws.
Faith leaders respond
Leaders of a group of faith-based activists who had traveled to Arizona to protest the bill as it began enforcement responded in a teleconference with reporters shortly after Bolton issued her ruling.
“We are pleased about today’s injunction, but we believe we still need a fix to our immigration crisis,” said Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice. “We still need comprehensive immigration reform.”
Senior Senate Democrats — in a question-and-answer session with religion reporters prior to Bolton's ruling — lamented the fact that partisan posturing in a midterm-election year seems to have doomed any comprehensive fix to the immigration problem this term.
“In the broad sense, we have been battling the issue of time in the Senate — with more objections and more filibusters,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich). “Everyone has backed away on the Republican side rather than being able to come together.”
Sen. Richard Durbin (U.S. Senate photo)
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Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) was more blunt. “I think it’s about the fact that 11 Republicans joined us in an effort for comprehensive immigration reform (in 2007) and today we have none,” he said. “They won’t step up and say things that a few years ago they thought were perfectly reasonable.”
Several prominent Republicans who had been working with Senate Democrats on comprehensive immigration reform — most notably Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham — have stepped away from the table in recent months. They have cited concerns over rising drug-cartel-related violence in northern Mexico spilling across the America’s porous southern border and say now is not the right time for an immigration-reform bill.
Their departure from the playing field means that reform — like virtually every other major piece of President Obama’s domestic agenda — is dead due to filibuster threats. Democrats do not have a large enough majority to garner the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster from a unified Republican caucus.
Nonetheless, an unusually broad array of faith groups — including conservative evangelical leaders like the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land — have expressed support for comprehensive immigration reform.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has signaled a possible piecemeal approach to the problem. Also on July 28, Reid announced that he would bring the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act to a floor vote before the year is over. The bill would provide a pathway to permanent legal residency for non-citizen children of illegal immigrants.
Supporters say such young people face a double trap. They are ineligible for student loans to enable them to attend college, and, even if they manage to pay for it without loans, they cannot be hired for a job because of their residency status.
“If ever there was an issue of basic justice, this is it,” Durbin said of the DREAM Act. “For goodness’ sake, what are we going to do with these kids? They were brought here as children!”
The bill has enjoyed broad bipartisan support — including Republican co-sponsors — in the Senate.
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Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.