Ted Perlmutter's Bookmarks tagged federalism →  View Popular

First, immigration is a federal responsibility. State and local governments
have no right to usurp or upend a vast, “carefully drawn federal statutory
scheme” that governs who enters the country and the conditions under which
immigrants stay, study, work and naturalize. Congress may be botching the job,
but it has not delegated it.

Second, the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection applies to all
persons, not just citizens. The presumption that the 14th Amendment can be set
aside while immigrants are hunted down and punished is widespread but false. The
judge wrote: “We cannot say clearly enough that persons who enter this country
without legal authorization are not stripped immediately of all their rights
because of this single illegal act.”

The state legislation requires every Arizona business to verify the legal status of each new employee. That's also a requirement of long-established federal law, but the feds rarely enforce it. Under the new Arizona statute, a first violation can result in a suspension of the business license. A second offense can mean permanent revocation -- in effect, an order to go out of business.

Napolitano warned the Legislature that it may have gone too far. Without any exclusion for vital public services, she said, a hospital or power plant could be shut down for hiring undocumented workers.