RWG welcomes DOJ lawsuit, urges administration to regain full control of immigration enforcement

Rights Working Group (RWG) welcomes the Department of Justice (DOJ)'s lawsuit seeking to declare the Arizona law SB 1070 invalid.  If enacted, SB 1070 would require the police to try to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop if there is a "reasonable suspicion" that the person is undocumented.  In addition, the law would give citizens the right to sue law enforcement agencies that they believe are not fully enforcing the law.

Laws such as SB 1070 are widely known to lead to unconstitutional racial profiling and interfere with law enforcement's primary objective of protecting and serving the communities they police.  Numerous studies have shown that when people fear the police, they are less likely to cooperate with law enforcement whether they are the victims or witnesses of crimes.  When law enforcement does not have the trust of the communities they police, it affects the security of everyone in that community.

In the wake of SB 1070, several states and jurisdictions have introduced copycat legislation.  The DOJ lawsuit relies on the federal government's authority to enforce immigration laws.  "By suing Arizona and seeking to overturn this racist law, the federal government is rightly asserting its exclusive authority to enforce federal civil immigration laws.  The enforcement of immigration law should be based in statute, and not change depending on your zip code," said Margaret Huang, Executive Director of RWG.  "This lawsuit should send a strong message to other states considering such laws."

RWG agrees with the DOJ's assertion that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and in addition to pursuing this lawsuit, RWG calls on the federal government to end programs like 287(g), Secure Communities initiative and the Criminal Alien Program that utilize state and local law enforcement and criminal justice systems to enforce immigration laws.  In particular, the proliferation of the 287(g) program that formally deputizes state and local law enforcement officials to engage in civil immigration enforcement activities was a significant step down the road that led to the passage of SB 1070.  In order to truly reclaim the federal government's authority over immigration enforcement, the Obama Administration should end these programs and rescind the 2002 DOJ Office of Legal Counsel memo which asserts that states have "inherent authority" to enforce federal immigration laws, a memo cited by the author of SB 1070.

"The Obama Administration must lead by example, not only in the lawsuits it files but in the policies it promotes," said Ms. Huang.  "We urge the administration to address the entirety of the problem - SB 1070 is just a symptom of a larger trend.  It is time to restore exclusive responsibility for immigration enforcement to the federal government."