EthnicMajority

(Politico) National Republicans look at New Mexico’s Susana Martinez and would like to see the future of their party: conservative, Hispanic and the favorite to become governor of a key swing state this fall.

But she is dodging the most volatile and important issue to the conservative base in the southwestern U.S.: immigration. While other Republican governors are racing to copy Arizona’s toughest-in-the-country immigration law, Martinez has expressed only tepid support for it. While Republicans in Washington want to reopen debate on birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, Martinez opposes changing the amendment.

She insists that the Arizona law is a public safety issue and not a political one.

“Susana Martinez believes that states have every right to check the immigration status of someone that has been arrested of a crime,” campaign manager Ryan Cangiolisi told POLITICO.

But the Arizona law allows officers to detain and check the immigration status of people who haven’t been arrested — leaving the Martinez statement well short of an outright endorsement of the law.

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(NY Daily News) Arizona’s controversial anti-illegal immigration law is here to stay, at least in some form, a federal judge said Thursday in Phoenix.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, who is presiding over the federal government’s lawsuit against Arizona over the legislation, said she has no intention of blocking the entire law, though she did not deliver a ruling on the closely watched case.

Bolton did, however, say parts of the 14 sections the law could be removed, the Arizona Republic reported.

Arizona’s law, Senate Bill 1070, gives police the ability to question a suspect’s immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

The state’s governor, Jan Brewer, signed the law in April and it is scheduled to take effect July 29.

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(Fox News) The Arizona Latino Republican Association will become the first Hispanic organization in the country to actively oppose the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the state of Arizona’s new immigration law.

Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch, Inc., said he will be joined by ALRA Chairman Jesse Hernandez and members of the Phoenix Law Enforcement
Association at an announcement Thursday morning in Phoenix.

ALRA will become the first group of Latino Americans to “put a foot forward legally” in support of S.B. 1070 by filing a motion to intervene against the Justice Department’s lawsuit challenging Arizona’s immigration policy, Klayman said.

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(Washington Post) The Justice Department filed suit Tuesday against Arizona, charging that the state’s new immigration law is unconstitutional and requesting a preliminary injunction to stop the legislation from taking effect.

The lawsuit says the law illegally intrudes on federal prerogatives, invoking as its main argument the legal doctrine of “preemption,” which is based on the Constitution’s supremacy clause and says that federal law trumps state statutes. The Justice Department argues that enforcing immigration laws is a federal responsibility.

But the filing also asserts that the Arizona law would harm people’s civil rights, leading to police harassment of U.S. citizens and foreigners. President Obama has warned that the law could violate citizens’ civil rights, and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has expressed concern that it could drive a wedge between police and immigrant communities.

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(Politico) Ahead of Arizona’s new immigration law taking effect, the state is trying to train police to avoid getting accused of racial profiling.

The new hourlong training video features some of the state’s top law enforcement officials warning police that their enforcement of the new immigration law will be under intense scrutiny.

“We’re gonna be accused of racial profiling no matter what we do,” Tucson police Chief Roberto Villasenor said in the video, which was first posted by the liberal blog Talking Points Memo. “The best thing we can do is document thoroughly where we develop our reasonable suspicion and probable cause.”

The law is set to kick in on July 29. Critics say its granting police the right to ask for proof of citizenship from those they suspect are illegal immigrants will lead to racial profiling and the harassment of Hispanics.

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