An injunction in Arizona
Since Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 in April, the faith community’s moral witness against this anti-immigrant bill and for comprehensive immigration reform has been consistent and powerful. This afternoon, United States District Court Judge Susan Bolton issued a preliminary injunction against many of the law’s most troubling provisions, including:
- Requiring a police officer to make a reasonable attempt to check the immigration status of those they have stopped;
- Forbidding police from releasing anyone they have arrested until that person’s immigration status is determined;
- Making it a violation of Arizona law for anyone not a citizen to fail to carry documentation;
- Creating a new state crime for trying to secure work while not a legal resident;
- Allowing police to make warrantless arrests if there is a belief the person has committed an offense that allows them to be removed from the United States.
University of Arizona law professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin told the Arizona Star that the ruling is “virtually a complete win for the United States” and that the “heart of SB1070 has been enjoined.” Although the ruling prevents many discriminatory measures from taking effect, an aspect of the law vigorously opposed by faith leaders will still be enacted. Harboring or transporting an immigrant who is in violation of immigration laws will still be unlawful. Giving an undocumented immigrant a ride in a church van, for example, will be illegal. Even hosting undocumented immigrants in worship services or providing them with church-based social services could be outlawed, according to Rev. Jan Olav Flaaten, executive director of the Arizona Ecumenical Council. Jenny Hwang, Director of Advocacy and Policy for the Refugee and Immigration Program at World Relief recently wrote:
Asking for someone’s legal status was never a requirement for a church to serve those in need, but because this law makes so many of the activities that churches engage in illegal, many churches will be forced to choose between following what they feel like God has called them to do (serving immigrants in their communities) and disobeying the Arizona law, or obeying the Arizona law and not being able to carry out what they feel is so central to their identity as a faith-based organization.
While today’s federal court ruling provides a welcome (if temporary) delay of numerous discriminatory policies, it also leaves in place measures that threaten not only undocumented immigrants, but also those who aid them.