Just received from NAFBPO
Will someone tell the ACLU to take a friggin hike (read the last paragraph)
Legal battle against Arizona’s law could become complicated
Wednesday, 5/19/10
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El Financiero (Mexico City) 5/18/10
A press report states that a legal memorandum dating to the administration of ex-President George W. Bush could complicate Barack Obama’s efforts to confront Arizona’s law SB1070. If the government decides to start legal action to prevent that law from going into effect, the document seems to be in conflict with the central argument that legal experts anticipate would be the core of the official case.
The existence of the document, written in 2002, turns out to be ironic because of the current administration’s intention to confront a law which President Barack Obama has called “ill guided.” The document from the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice concluded that local law enforcement has the “inherent power” to detain undocumented immigrants for violation of a federal law. The author of the Arizona law cited the authority granted to local law enforcement in that memorandum as a basis for the controversial legislation.
The Obama administration has not rescinded the memorandum, and a legal action on the part of the Department of Justice would be embarrassing at least. Robert Driscoll, an ex-official of the Department of Justice, who represents a sheriff in Arizona, pointed out how difficult it would be to “charge someone for carrying out the authority which the Department says they have.” The Attorney General, Eric Holder, has stated that his office is considering a lawsuit against Arizona and that the Civil Rights Division is conducting legal consultations on the matter.
Cecilia Wang, a lawyer with the ACLU, rejected the complications that the 2002 memorandum may cause because the Arizona law, she said, “goes much further” than the basic authority that document grants in order to carry out arrests.