HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal appeals court to stay Alabama's immigration law after a similar request was rebuffed by a federal judge in Birmingham.In a 28-page filing this morning to the Atlanta-based court, Justice Department attorneys argued Alabama's law contravenes the federal government's exclusive authority over immigration. The Justice Department said the federal goverment's immigration law enforcement priorities include aliens who pose a danger to national security or those who have committed crimes."... States do not have the authority to disregard these priorities and create a patchwork of independent immigration policies," the Justice Department filing argues. "Similarly, neither the Constitution nor the federal immigration laws permit a state scheme avowedly designed to drive aliens out of the State - a program of de facto removal and a blunt instrument that can only impede federal law enforcement, obstruct the overall national regulation of immigration and present new concerns for the states to which aliens 'deport themselves.'"The Justice Department argues the law is already "inducing many parents to keep their children home from school due to fear about the State's immigration policy."The emergency stay request comes nine days after U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn refused to block several portions of the far-reaching Alabama law from going into effect. The Justice Department and a group of 36 plaintiffs had both sued to stop Alabama's law, but Blackburn determined several provisions in the law were not unconstitutional as the plaintiffs had argued.The judge let stand measures requiring people to carry proof they have the right to be in the U.S.; directing police to check immigration status of people involved in traffic stops and arrests; barring entering contracts with illegal immigrants; requiring schools to check the immigration status of enrollees and prohibiting illegal immigrants from entering into business transactions with state and local government.Blackburn found Alabama's law is aimed at cooperating with the federal government, as Congress requires. In Friday's filing the Justice Department disagreed with that conclusion and cited the traffic stop status checks as an example. It says that section of the law exposes even lawfully present aliens to the possiblity of police surveillance."The district court here concluded, however, that Section 12 passes muster because it 'reflects an intent to cooperat with the federal government,''' the filing notes. "To the contrary, it radically curbs the discretion of state officials to tailor their efforts to respond to federal priorities. By imposing an inflexible mandate for Alabama law enforcement officers to check immigration status of broad categories of people, Section 12 serves as an obstacle in every instance to the ability of individual state and local officers to cooperate with federal officers administering federal policies and discretion as the circumstances of the particular case require." After Wednesday's ruling both the plaintiffs led by the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama and the Justice Department signaled they intended to appeal the judge's ruling to the 11th Circuit. But they first asked Blackburn to stay the law pending that appeal. She rejected that request Wednesday.The Justice Department is seeking an expedited review of the case by the appeals court, saying: "Although it is too soon to determine with precision the effects of HB 56, news accounts confirm that the law is having its intended but impermissible consequences of driving aliens from the state" outside the federal immigration structure. Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct length of the stay request. The request has a number of exhibits attached to it, related to earlier court filings. It has also been updated to incude additonal excerpts from the DOJ filing. Related topics: immigration law
Obama's brownshirts. Hank Jr..... maybe on to something? That pig in the ground thing is dead on.
Hank Jr. is an idiot. Hitler was a lot more successful that Obama has been.
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