Gov. Jan Brewer is opening up a new front in her legal battle over the state’s 2010 immigration law.
In legal papers filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the governor’s lawyers took the first steps to argue that federal Judge Susan Bolton got it wrong earlier this month when she concluded it is illegal for Arizona to make a state crime out of harboring illegal immigrants. They want that order reversed.
If they are successful, that actually would make the second change of course. Bolton originally had found the provision legal in her first ruling two years ago before concluding earlier this month that was a mistake.
At the heart of the battle is a section of SB 1070 that would create a separate crime for someone who is violating any other law to also transport or harbor an illegal immigrant, or to encourage or induce someone to illegally come to or live in the state. The law requires that someone knows the person is in this country illegally or recklessly disregard that fact.
Gubernatorial press aide Matthew Benson said his boss believes this is an important tool for law enforcement.
“We’re talking about the transport and harboring of illegal immigrants,” he said. “That’s something that leaves a path of crime and violence all over our state.”
He said rival gangs of smugglers get into violent fights with each other.
“We see it in the drop houses where torture and blackmail are commonplace,” Benson continued. “The state has an obligation and a right to protect its citizens.”
In her original 2010 ruling, Bolton rejected arguments by the Obama administration that the provision conflicted with the exclusive right of the federal government to regulate immigration.
“(The section) does not attempt to regulate who should or should not be admitted into the United States, and it does not regulate the conditions under which legal entrants may remain in the United States,” Bolton wrote at that time in refusing to block the law.
But earlier this month, Bolton had a change of heart. The judge concluded that this is strictly a federal issue.
“It is a federal crime to transport or move an unlawfully present alien within the United States; to conceal, harbor, or shield an unlawfully present alien from detection; or to encourage or induce a person to come to, enter or reside in the United States without authorization,” the judge said in her Sept. 5 ruling. And she said federal law also makes it a crime to aid in any of these acts.
“While state officials are authorized to make arrests for these violations of federal law, the federal government retains exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute them,” Bolton ruled.
Benson acknowledged that the incident which concerns Brewer likely already can be prosecuted under existing state laws. For example, it already is a crime to kidnap someone or to torture them.
He said, though, that does not make the section of SB 1070 illegal or unnecessary.
“This provision complements federal law and gives state law enforcement one more tool to attack what is an ongoing problem,” Benson said.
But Bolton already has rejected the argument that Arizona can adopt laws designed to do the same things.
“Permitting the state to impose its own penalties for the federal offenses here would conflict with the careful framework Congress adopted,” the judge wrote. In fact, she said that language is precisely what the U.S. Supreme Court wrote in June when it sided with the Obama administration and ruled that three other sections of SB 1070 are preempted by federal law:
• Requiring immigrants carry federal registration papers.
• Making it a state crime for someone who is undocumented to seek work or hold a job in Arizona.
• Allowing state and local police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants without warrants.
Benson acknowledged the state was rebuffed on those three points. But he said that does not preclude Brewer from making the same arguments to try to preserve the section on harboring.
“That’s what courts are for,” he said.
In that June ruling, the high court sided with Arizona on only one issue: requiring police to question those they have stopped if there is reason to believe that they are in this country illegally. The justices said there was no evidence, at least at this point, those kinds of checks are preempted by federal law.
There is separate litigation by civil rights groups challenging that section, not on the basis of preemption but that there is no way to enforce the law without violating the rights of minorities.
Masterrogue666 posted at 12:44 pm on Mon, Oct 1, 2012.
Yes, DavidNichols's personal hatred is showing. It's not race, but legal standing. He's called me a racist more than once, yet I've never written anything that would lead a LOGICAL and RATIONAL person to spout such lies. DavidNichols, do you know what "libel" means?
Bodacious posted at 3:34 pm on Fri, Sep 28, 2012.
Thank you Gov. Brewer for working for the legal citizens of Arizona. You will always have brain dead morons like DavidNichols screeming the "R" word because idiots like him don't realize that "illegal" is not a race.
For the record Dave it is not an "anti-immigrant rant" it is an "anti-ILLEGAL alien criminal invader rant" But you're too stupid to realize that.
There is nothing more disgusting than the illegal alien criminal invaders marching in our streets DEMANDING the right to stay and suck off our tax dollars.
Gov. Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio...2 great Americans working for Americans and NOT the illegal parasites!
DavidNichols posted at 11:21 am on Fri, Sep 28, 2012.
For the Record Idiot Jan:
January 2008 began the "Anti-Immigrant Rant", the E-verify (Attrition)Law, the I.C.E. Deportation/Incarceration Programs, and of course "The Great Recession", the "Foreclosure Crisis", and our "New Ballooning National Deficit".
This is No Co-incidence Jan!
Now I will Baffle your Racist Brain:
"America is great because it is good, when it ceases to be good, it ceases to be great."
Alex De Tocqueville
You have zero "Good" in you Jan.
"Choose The Right" Governor Brewer?
To: Good.
DavidNichols posted at 11:12 am on Fri, Sep 28, 2012.
Jan Brewer said: We are a land of laws, all laws".
Jan Brewer Defrauded Social Security for $75,000.00 to reward her knife point rapist son Ron while he served out his sentence.
Who got the money Jan?
Who spent the money Jan?
A"We are a land of laws", right Jan?
The Feds were very kind to Governor Brewer, they granted her "Amnesty",thus far and simply allowed her to re-pay Social Security the $75,000.00 Grand Theft she committed.
To: Justice in Corrupt Arizona?
Just against Hispanic's right Jan?
wdgnas posted at 5:57 am on Fri, Sep 28, 2012.
why don't the feds march into arizona and arrest the governor of the state for harboring illegal aliens? why don't the feds march into arizona and arrest the governor for conspiring to provide the roads that allow the transportation of illegal aliens?
Bingo6 posted at 5:12 am on Fri, Sep 28, 2012.
Don't worry in November the coming Obama landslide victory will cleanse the nation
of the tea potted crackpots and send these morons and theocratic traitors back to the street corner circus tents where they belong.
As for our pathetic racist governor the only hope we have for us is we know the Arizona taxpayers will once again foot the bill on more endless and groundless court cases while our new upcoming blue state must hold our noses until this foolish clown of a governor fades away on her destiny of term limits.
dtmac posted at 12:29 am on Fri, Sep 28, 2012.
The GOP has been hijacked by the "Teabaggers" and the religious right who want an American Theocracy. I for one do not have any use for either.
Deddzone posted at 10:27 pm on Thu, Sep 27, 2012.
I don't like amnesty either. But Brewer long ago lost control of this state. She has ONE idea and it was mostly gutted by the SCOTUS.
samkat posted at 6:57 pm on Thu, Sep 27, 2012.
I can't say the the tea party is my cup of tea so to speak but I am against any form of amnesty.
Brittanicus posted at 6:35 pm on Thu, Sep 27, 2012.
None of our immigration laws are going to matter, if Obama returns for a second term? The only people it’s going to financially affect the taxpayers and the hundreds of billions of dollars to be extracted forcibly from their taxes. President Obama is sure to enact another blanket amnesty as Reagan did in 1986. Only chance to stave-off any of immigration policies is to vote as many TEA Party legislators into Congress as possible. God help us from the two corrupt political parties if we do not? Better also be alert for Democratic Voter fraud now until November, because ACORN is NOT dead.
The TEA PARTY (THE PEOPLE’S) PARTY should not be defined as just white people; they are not, they are millions of Americans of every nationality and skin color. My chapter has Hispanics, Black people, Asians from every walk of life. We are “The People “frustrated with the corruption in both parties. The Liberal oriented mainstream media have constantly lied about the agenda of the TEA PARTY. The TEA PARTY are moderate Constitutionalists, not the hard core Marxist-Communist-Socialists entrenched amongst the Democrats who want open borders and no laws to stop illegal migrants and immigrants from thrashing the U.S. taxpayers safety net.
If you want higher taxes; higher gas prices at the pump; an archaic tax system that benefits the privileged in both parties; a ever growing federal government with rules and regulations that inhibit new business creation; and a president that is giving even more to the “freeloader” parasites that cohabit with the illegal alien invaders who are draining the state reservoirs of money.
The 9th circuit court is run by a bunch of Liberal judges, who interpret the laws according to their plan, not to the edicts of the Constitution. If something isn’t done in the next presidency, America will be further overrun with –unfettered poverty. It’s still not a felony to cross illegally into this sovereign nation and as I see it and millions who are involved in the TEA PARTY, the laws have been ignored for years. Why should citizens or lawful immigrants with papers have to compete with illegal aliens? I just know America is in serious trouble with a 16 trillion dollar deficit, and no real enforcement to stop more human financial encumbrances entering through our borders or jetting in from a foreign country. It’s a real catch 22 situation with the winners being businesses using cheap labor, selling more TV and household appliances, food and a whole retinue of things needed to live. They go to the bank loaded down with their dollars, but the taxpayers must foot the bills for free health care, free children’s schooling to K-12, government housing and other special programs, while citizens-residents pay the immense bill.
I am sure about is the plan of the TEA PARTY if they can eject many Democrats and Republican incumbents and replace them? It’s already happening and by replacing incumbents in the Republican Party can politically persist that the “LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT (E-VERIFY) and the BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP LAW” finds passage and enacted to restrain more illegal alien invaders. They bring their unborn babies here, to live as parasites of the U.S. taxpayer. The children of illegal aliens had no say in coming to America, but by the enactment of the BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BILL, this incredulous expensive issue for taxpayers is solved.