Reply #20: Lawsuits challenge new Arizona immigration law

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

BY JONATHAN J. COOPER and PAUL DAVENPORT

PHOENIX (AP) - Anger mounted Thursday over an Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigration as a police officer filed one of the first lawsuits challenging the law and activists gathered outside an Arizona Diamondbacks game at Wrigley Field in Chicago, chanting "Boycott Arizona."

The lawsuit from 15-year Tucson police veteran Martin Escobar is one of two filed Thursday, less than a week after Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law that's sparked fears it will lead to racial profiling despite the governor's vow that officers will be properly trained.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the federal government may challenge the law, which requires local and state law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're in the country illegally, and makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally.

Escobar, an overnight patrol officer in a heavily Latino area of Tucson, argues there's no way for officers to confirm people's immigration status without impeding investigations, and that the new law violates numerous constitutional rights.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20100429/D9FCV5U80.html

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Andrea Mercado makes a sign in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, April 27, 2010 in preparation for a planned May 1 immigration rally against Arizona Senate Bill 1070. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)