Elvira Arellano, left, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has taken refuge ... more >“You cannot have a system of 50 quarterbacks in the immigration system because immigration includes issues of law enforcement, it involves decisions with implications in foreign policy, it involves incidents with humanitarian implications, and you can’t have 50 states making immigration law and have a coherent system,” Mr. Perez said, according to MainJustice.com, which covers the Justice Department.
But defenders say Arizona’s law would be a problem only if it conflicted with Congress’ immigration policy.
On Wednesday, Michigan Attorney General Michael A. Cox filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the federal lawsuit arguing that Arizona’s law is consistent with what Congress intended. He was joined by attorneys general from eight states and one territory.
The Arizona law has become a flash point for the broader immigration debate, with polls showing a majority of voters supporting the crackdown.
Arizona officials have said the federal government has failed in its responsibility to police the borders, and the state is experiencing a crime wave spurred by illegal immigration. They have said the new law is meant to fill in the gaps in enforcement.
On Wednesday, two Republican senators — Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana — announced that they will introduce an amendment to a bill that would halt the Justice Department lawsuit by denying it federal funding.
Sanctuary cities are difficult to categorize, and there is no hard-and-fast rule for the label.
A 2007 report from the Justice Department’s inspector general found 15 cities that don’t regularly inform federal authorities when they arrest an illegal immigrant, and 10 cities that wouldn’t regularly tell authorities when a known illegal immigrant was being released from custody, either of which could be viewed as shielding illegal immigrants from detection.
The IG report said two jurisdictions — Oregon, and the city and county of San Francisco — acknowledge themselves as sanctuaries. It also said that many cities that are categorized as sanctuaries include language in their policies requiring local authorities to cooperate to the extent required by federal law.
A 2005 report by the Congressional Research Service listed 32 jurisdictions it said might be considered sanctuary cities.
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Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Kara Rowland, White House reporter for The Washington Times, is a D.C.-area native. She graduated from the University of Virginia, where she studied American government and spent nearly all her waking hours working as managing editor of the Cavalier Daily, UVa.’s student newspaper.
Her interest in political reporting was piqued by an internship at Roll Call the summer before her ...
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