Judge Green Lights ‘Papers Please’ Provision

PHOENIX (CN) - A federal judge on Wednesday refused to block the "show me your papers" section of Arizona's immigration law, clearing the way for enforcement to begin.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton refused to block Subsection 2(B) of Arizona's immigration law, AB 1070.

"Subsection 2(B) ... requires that all persons who are arrested have their immigration status verified prior to release," Bolton wrote. But citing Arizona v. United States, 132 S. Ct. at 2507-10, Bolton found: "Plaintiffs have not shown that they are likely to succeed on their facial challenges to Subsection 2(B) as a result of the Supreme Court's opinion in the related case."

Bolton added: "While the Supreme Court did state that 'it is not clear at this stage and on this record that the verification process would result in a prolonged detention,' the Court went on to conclude that it was improper to enjoin Subsection 2(B) 'before the state courts had an opportunity to construe it and without some showing that enforcement of the provision in fact conflicts with federal immigration law and its objectives.' Arizona, 132 S. Ct. at 2509-10."

Bolton did, however, preliminarily enjoin part of Section 5 of SB 1070, which created Arizona Revised Statute § 13-2929.

"A.R.S. § 13-2929 ... provides that it is unlawful for a person who is in violation of a criminal offense to: (1) transport or move or attempt to transport or move an alien in Arizona in furtherance of the alien's unlawful presence in the United States; (2) conceal, harbor, or shield or attempt to conceal, harbor, or shield an alien from detection in Arizona; and (3) encourage or induce an alien to come to or live in Arizona. Id. § 13-2929(A)(1)-(3). In order to violate A.R.S. § 13-2929(A), a person must know or recklessly disregard the fact that the alien is unlawfully present in the United States. Id. Violation of A.R.S. § 13-2929 is a class 1 misdemeanor."

Bolton found that A.R.S. § 13-2929 violates the Supremacy Clause, and preliminarily enjoined it.

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