Federal Judge Hears Arguments Challenging Arpaio's Worksite Raids
PHOENIX — Immigrant rights activists asked a federal judge Thursday to immediately block two Arizona identity theft provisions. Their goal is to stop Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s worksite raids, which have resulted in the arrest of hundreds of immigrants working with fake papers in the past several years.
The Arizona legislature amended state identity theft laws in 2007 and 2008 to make it a felony to use a fake identity for the purpose of getting hired for a job.
Attorney Annie Lai of the University of California Irvine Law School is challenging those laws on behalf of plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiffs include the Phoenix-based community organization Puente, along with two women who were arrested under these laws, and a Maricopa County taxpayer.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Day Labor Organizing Network are also representing plaintiffs.
Lai argues the legislature intended these laws as a way to crack down on unauthorized immigrants and encourage them to leave the state.
“They would be subject to felony prosecution, arrested, detained in Arpaio’s jails for many years without the possibility of bail,” Lai said. “And then ultimately deported. And that would send a ripple effect of fear throughout the community to persuade the immigrant community here in Arizona that they should self-deport.”
To the extent that was lawmakers’ strategy, several pieces of it have fallen apart recently.
Federal immigration officials have chosen not to deport many immigrants arrested in these worksite operations.
And earlier this week, a federal appeals court struck down the Arizona law that made unauthorized immigrants ineligible for bail if they were arrested for certain crimes.
One after another, federal judges have invalidated several Arizona immigration enforcement policies in recent years.
Those behind this case want Maricopa County's worksite arrests of immigrants to be the next policy to fail in court.
“It is very urgent, we have seen so many cases of families torn apart because of the work raids,” said Natally Cruz of Puente.
In court on Thursday, U.S. District Judge David Campbell had tough questions for attorneys on both sides.
Those representing Puente asked for a preliminary injunction to block the two provisions that criminalize using fake IDs for work.
They argued the federal government is in charge of immigration enforcement, so these state laws are preempted by federal law.
But lawyers representing the Maricopa County Attorney's Office disagreed.
They argued in court these laws could also be used to prosecute U.S. citizens for ID theft, and aren’t explicitly about immigration.
Attorneys with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office declined to provide additional comments to media after the oral argument.
