Judge partially blocks Arizona's controversial immigration law; prayer vigils to proceed as planned
Episcopal News Service, Phoenix, Arizona. July 28, 2010 [072810-02]
Pat McCaughan
Activists hailed a federal judge's July 28 decision to partially block sections of Arizona's controversial immigration law and said they will proceed with prayer vigils and protests as planned for July 29, the day the law was to take effect.
"I think in one sense this is a victory in our democratic process of checks and balances," said Bishop Kirk S. Smith of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. "I think it's a victory that confirms our American sense of compassion and fairness.
"I pray that this will open the way for a future more thoughtful and humane resolution of our immigration crisis," added Smith, a scheduled speaker at a 6 a.m. July 29 interfaith prayer vigil at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, part of a daylong series of anti-immigration law demonstrations and events in downtown Phoenix and elsewhere.
Hours before SB1070, which seeks to identify and deport undocumented persons, was to take effect, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton said crucial aspects of the law simply could not be enforced.
Specifically, she cited requirements that immigrants carry citizenship papers at all times and that police officers check immigration status during traffic stops, detentions and arrests. Also halted was a section barring undocumented workers from applying for or soliciting employment.
Bolton said the law puts unfair burdens on legal immigrants. "There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens," said Bolton, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Bill Clinton. "Preserving the status quo is less harmful."
She also barred sections that forbid police from releasing anyone arrested until that person's immigration status is determined and that allowed 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.
Other aspects of the law, including provisions against the smuggling of undocumented persons, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m.
The ruling restored peace of mind — at least temporarily -- for many of her 300-member Spanish-speaking congregation, said the Rev. Canon Carmen B. Guerrero, canon for peace and justice for the Arizona diocese.
"My phone has not stopped ringing today," she said. "Families in the congregation feel they can breathe a sigh of relief. They don't have to be afraid. They don't have to fear their husband might not come home because he got caught somewhere. It's an enormous opportunity to breathe again."
But Guerrero said the struggle "isn't over, it's just postponed."
She added, "It's important from a church perspective to let people know that God really does listen to prayer.
"I spent half my sermon last Sunday talking about being persistent in prayer, about not giving up and continuing to plead our case to God. So I'm excited about the ruling," she said.
Now perhaps there is an opportunity to "look at a more humane way of dealing with immigration reform and take a serious look at border protection without having to mix the two together," she said.
A fourth-generation Mexican American, Guerrero said nonetheless Bolton's decision was a big relief because those who were born here or had become American citizens still felt targeted "because it (SB1070) had to do with our appearance."
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed SB1070 into law in April, called the ruling "a bump in the road" and said she planned to appeal it, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
The Rev. Maeve Johnson, a deacon who serves at Trinity Cathedral and an SB1070 supporter, said she wasn't surprised by Bolton's ruling and agreed that the nation's top court should decide the issue once and for all.
She said that the immigration issue "has become a very vicious argument on both sides" even in some congregations. She said she had no plans to participate in counter-demonstrations on July 29.
"Some people who support this law are racist and will act out of fanaticism on this issue; others who oppose it are racist and will act out, but not all who either support or oppose it are racist," she said.
But, she added, "it's critical for people to try to come together on this issue. It's so disheartening because it's like we've lost the ability to come together for overarching principles and to work together."
Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for Federation for American Immigration Reform or FAIR, a proponent of SB1070, agreed in a July 28 telephone interview from his Seattle office that "it's a mistake to believe that people who want immigration laws enforced necessarily are hostile to immigrants or even to illegal immigrants.
"The issue is, what happens to those in the receiving society? Who's going to protect their rights and interests? You can say this is detrimental to my interest without necessarily being hostile to people breaking the law," Mehlman said.
He said Bolton erred in barring parts of the law, but noted that she did allow for the role of state governments in immigration enforcement. The U.S. Justice Department had argued that immigration enforcement is the responsibility of federal, not state, authorities.
Mehlman also criticized the July 27 decision of the Fremont, Nebraska, city council to delay a voter-approved ban on hiring or renting to illegal immigrants from taking effect. The council unanimously voted to suspend the ordinance, which is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund.
They also voted to hire Kansas City, Missouri, attorney Kris Kobach, who volunteered his legal services free of charge to defend the city in court. Kobach, a candidate for secretary of state, helped draft the Fremont ordinance and also helped write the Arizona law. He also is providing legal work on two other immigration cases in Texas and California.
Andy Schnapz, a retired maintenance worker who supports the Fremont law, said he wasn't sure of the number of undocumented persons in the small meatpacking town of 25,000.
"But I say if you have one illegal, it's too many, and not just Hispanics, but every nationality," he said in a July 28 telephone interview from his Fremont home. "I don't care what color or race or nationality you are, if you're here illegally, we want you out. We have a country of laws, everyone should abide by those laws."
But the Rev. Ernesto Medina, priest-in-charge at St. Martha's Episcopal Church in Papillion, Nebraska, said that unfortunate incidents by a few misinformed and misguided people have fueled tension and mistrust. For example, he said, a Fremont mobile home park with mostly Latino residents was recently sprayed with BB-gun pellets.
"It's one thing to have a disagreement among neighbors and then go outside and mow each other's lawns" as reconciliation, he said. "But this dynamic is that people from the outside that remain anonymous come into a community and manipulate them."
However, faith and other communities have begun to coalesce and work out ways of being proactive, not reactive, he said.
After a recent prayer vigil, clergy and other leaders banded together to form a human barricade at the mobile home park, he said.
"The way I've been seeing it is this, it's no longer an issue about immigrants," he added. "It's about who are we as a community. Who are we going to be? Are we people that make decisions without data and at what cost?"