Courts might deflate Arizona immigrant law

In April, Arizona launched what has become a growing trend: U.S. state and local governments enacting laws that crack down on unauthorized migrants.

So far, about 1,400 bills dealing with immigration, most seeking to restrict undocumented migrants, have been introduced in state legislatures across the United States.

In the end, however, the effect of the Arizona law might be similar to that of Proposition 187, approved by California voters in November 1994 but enjoined by a federal court and never implemented.

Arizona, where almost half of the million foreign-born residents are believed to be unauthorized, enacted the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (SB 1070) on April 23, 2010, making it a misdemeanor to be illegally in the state.

Immigrants must carry proof of their legal status, and show IDs to police officers who have a "reasonable suspicion" they might be illegally in the United States. Violators can be fined $2,500 or jailed up to six months.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón complained about Arizona's law during a visit with President Obama in mid-May, saying it "opens the door to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement."

Calderón, who reportedly has relatives living illegally in the United States, said that SB 1070 "introduces a terrible idea: using racial profiling as a basis for law enforcement."

"Migration is a natural phenomenon and obeys the economic dynamic between the U.S. and Mexico,” he said. “It's a textbook case of a big economy that is capital intensive and a small economy that is labor intensive."

In June 2010, the Obama administration announced that it would sue to block SB 1070 from taking effect as planned on July 29, 2010.

Other critics, including the National Immigration Law Center, also sued.

The legal issue is likely to turn on whether Arizona police are engaged in lawful "concurrent enforcement" of immigration laws with federal authorities or in unlawful racial profiling.

Since the 1940s, it has been U.S. federal law – not state law – that has required immigrants to carry papers showing they are legally in the country.