* Schumer to introduce bill blocking state enforcement
* Legislation hinges on Supreme Court ruling this summer
* Critics say Arizona law, others target “brown skin”
* US agrees to suspend some deportation cases as part of
review
(Adds update on US immigration case review)
By Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) – Democrats in the U.S.
Senate are preparing a backup plan to thwart sweeping
immigration laws in Arizona and other states if the nation’s top
court supports the hotly debated measures.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday in a
case questioning an Arizona law that allows local police to
check individuals’ immigration status. The law, which was
enacted in 2010 and is being copied in other states, has been
criticized as promoting discrimination against minorities.
The Supreme Court’s decision has important legal and
political implications in an election year, when the reach of
federal government, states rights and illegal immigration will
be debated.
In a separate development late on Tuesday, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement said it had identified some 16,500
deportation cases that could be suspended for now so that
authorities can focus more closely on suspected illegal
immigrants with criminal records or other pressing cases.
President Barack Obama’s administration is about two thirds
of the way through a review of some 300,000 cases pending before
immigration courts nationwide. The effort is aimed at
identifying the best use of government resources and sorting out
those cases that have the greatest impact on public safety, said
Gillian Christensen, an immigration and customs spokeswoman.
“The effective use of prosecutorial discretion allows ICE to
alleviate the burden posed on already overwhelmed immigration
courts by administratively closing cases that do not meet the
agency’s priorities,” Christensen said.
LEGISLATION POSSIBLE
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said if the high court
upholds Arizona’s law, he will introduce legislation that
prevents state and local authorities from enforcing their own
immigration rules.
“States like Arizona and Alabama will no longer be able to
get away with saying they are simply ‘helping the federal
government’ to enforce the law when they are really writing
their own laws,” Schumer said at a congressional hearing held to
highlight the issue one day before the court arguments begin.
Republicans were expected to counter with their own
immigration reform legislation. While neither measure is
expected to advance very far in Congress this year, they are
likely to get a lot of attention in the run-up to the Nov. 6
presidential and congressional elections.
Republicans boycotted the hearing, dismissing it as
political theater.
Arizona’s measure allows police to check immigration status
when a person is arrested or legally stopped, and some other
states have gone farther. Proponents argue such efforts enforce
federal immigration laws and help catch criminals.
But critics of the crackdown in the western state, which
borders Mexico, say the law unfairly targets Latinos and
encourages racial profiling based on the color of one’s skin.
“If you have brown skin in my state, you’re going to be
asked to prove your citizenship,” said Dennis DeConcini, a
former Democratic U.S. senator from Arizona.
The Republican state senator who wrote the Arizona law,
Russell Pearce, defended it as an effective tool to fight
illegal immigration when federal agents do not. A Reuters/Ipsos
poll shows most Americans generally support such laws.
“The invasion of illegal aliens we face today – convicted
felons, drug cartels, gang members, human traffickers and even
terrorists – pose one of the greatest threats to our nation,”
said Pearce, adding that his own son works as a sheriff and was
shot by an illegal immigrant.
Others, including Arizona state legislator Steve Gallardo, a
Democrat, pointed to law-abiding immigrants who now feel
compelled to carry around their birth certificate or other
documents in case they get pulled over.
“Its primary objective was to make second-class citizens of
U.S. Latinos,” said Gallardo, a fourth generation
Mexican-American.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu and Christopher Wilson)
