“A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law from going into effect,” notes The New York Times. Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation offers this recap of the judge’s decision:
Unfortunately, however, Judge Bolton (using very fallacious reasoning) did preliminarily block provisions (1) calling for Arizona law enforcement officials to verify the immigration status of individuals who are arrested when an officer has a reasonable suspicion that they are an illegal alien; (2) making it a state crime to violate federal alien registration requirements; (3) creating a crime for an illegal alien to solicit, apply for, or perform work; and (4) authorizing an arrest when there is probable cause to believe that an individual is removable from the U.S.
Of course, to come to that conclusion, the judge had to torture the language of the Arizona statute, ignore federal law and precedent, and come to an illogical conclusion about the supposed burdens placed on the federal government by the Arizona law.
It should also be noted that Montana, as a border state ourselves, has been noticeably absent in the Arizona immigration bill debate. Even as at least nine other states have taken to Arizona’s defense in federal court. The question has been posed here: what will Attorney General Steve Bullock do? If Montana steps up its efforts to combat illegal immigration, can we expect a federal legal challenge as well?
As a side note, you may have seen the news regarding this program taking place between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Montana’s Lewis and Clark County.
Here’s what Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton had to say about that effort in an interview with KBLL’s Jay Scott:
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