In 2010, when Arizona passed legislation supported by the Republican governor and Republican dominated legislature allowing police to ask about legal status if there was a “reasonable suspicion” that individuals were in the country illegally, the Democratic White House and Justice Department challenged the law. They said immigration policy was the province of the federal government.
Now California, led by a Democratic governor and a Democratic majority legislature, passed sanctuary state and other statutes to protect immigrants. The Republican White House and Department of Justice filed suit. They said immigration policy was the province of the federal government.
In the former case, Arizona Republican politicians argued state’s rights and the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving power to states to rebut the federal intervention. California Democratic politicians make the same arguments today.
Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States in 2010 released a statement on the Arizona law that said in part, “Seeking to address the issue through a patchwork of state laws will only create more problems than it solves.”
Holder added that, “S.B. 1070 will place significant burdens on federal agencies, diverting their resources away from high-priority targets, such as aliens implicated in terrorism, drug smuggling, and gang activity, and those with criminal records.”
Current Attorney General Jeff Sessions says that California’s sanctuary laws are protecting the criminal element.
Holder will help defend the California sanctuary law. According to the Los Angeles Times, Holder said yesterday that “legal precedent makes clear that the federal government cannot insist that a state use its resources to enforce federal immigration law.”
The United States Supreme Court upheld the Arizona law but struck some of its provisions. The lawsuit against California is probably headed for that same court.
Meanwhile, people looking at different interests shifting arguments depending on the circumstances and who is in charge throw up their hands in disgust.