Justice Department poised to challenge Arizona immigration law
Los Angeles Times


Ten police chiefs meet with Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. to tell him the measure would hinder local law enforcement and ask that the Obama administration block it.
May 27, 2010|By Richard A. Serrano, Tribune Washington Bureau, and Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles TimesReporting from Washington and Los Angeles -- — Top Justice Department officials have drafted a legal challenge asserting that Arizona's controversial immigration law is unconstitutional because it impinges on the federal government's authority to police the nation's borders, sources said Wednesday.




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FOR THE RECORD:
Arizona immigration law: An article in Thursday's Section A about federal challenges to Arizona's recently enacted immigration law said U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. met Wednesday in Washington with 10 top police chiefs who object to the legislation. Only nine chiefs went to the meeting. The article listed Chief Jack Harris of Phoenix as among those there, but he was unable to attend. —




At the same time, the government officials said, the department's civil rights section is considering possible legal action against the law on the basis that it amounts to racial profiling of Latinos who are legally in Arizona but conceivably could be asked to provide documents proving their citizenship.


U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. met Wednesday with 10 top police chiefs who object to the Arizona legislation and promised them he would act on the recommendations soon, a spokesman said.


The police chiefs urged Holder and the Obama administration, which has grave reservations about the Arizona measure, to stop the law. The chiefs said it would seriously hamper local police work if officers had to serve as border patrol policemen...link to complete article