Judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law

Federal judge Susan Bolton today blocked key sections of a controversial Arizona immigration law due to take effect Thursday.

Bolton ruled to grant the United States a preliminary injunction until a final judgment is reached in its case against the state of Arizona. Bolton said the United States was likely to succeed in showing that federal law preempts various sections of the new law.

Provisions blocked by Bolton's ruling include those that let police officers determine the immigration status of people they stop, made it a crime to not carry alien registration papers, made it a crime for immigrants illegally in the country to solicit work, and let police arrest a person without a warrant where there is probable cause of a public offense that makes that person removable from the U.S.

"Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully present aliens, because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked," Bolton wrote in her ruling. The Arizona law would also place "the burden on federal resources and priorities," she said.

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The ruling comes as Arizona sought to create policies that would combat illegal immigration, citing a lack of federal progress to resolve the issue. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the law that was blocked Wednesday, said that the new law was meant to complement and not supplant federal law.

Meanwhile, efforts in Washington to both boost border protection and grant a path to legal status for 11 million immigrants in the country illegally have not received enough support from lawmakers to even come up for debate. Policy analysts do not see any progress on immigration reform until next year, after the general elections in November.

"The Court therefore finds that preserving the status quo through a preliminary injunction is less harmful than allowing state laws that are likely preempted by federal law to be enforced," Bolton wrote.