Almost two weeks after the Obama Administration announced that young immigrants illegally brought to the United States would no longer be deported, the U.S. Supreme Court brings hope to immigrants in another landmark decision- the Court struck down the majority of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.
“I am pleased that the Supreme Court has struck down the key provisions of Arizona’s immigration law,” President Barack Obama said in a statement Monday. “No American should ever live under a cloud of suspicion just because of what they look like.”
Though the Supreme Court struck down most of the provisions, including one that prohibited illegal immigrants from being employed, one significant part of Arizona’s 2010 immigration law (SB 1070) still stands. Arizona law enforcement officials can check the immigration status of anyone they suspect is here illegally.
Government officials are troubled that Arizona law officials might abuse the leeway the provision grants them.
“I remain concerned about how Arizona officials will enforce the immigration papers provision of SB 1070,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in a statement, “which threatens to turn local law enforcement- from small-town cops to county sheriffs and state troopers- into proxies for federal immigration enforcement.
As a result of the ruling, government officials like Stringer and President Obama are also calling for changes to federal immigration laws.
“What this decision makes unmistakably clear is that Congress must act on comprehensive immigration reform,” Obama said in a statement. “A patchwork of state laws is not a solution to our broken immigration system- it’s part of the problem.”