Joe Arpaio Vows to Defy Supreme Court on Immigration Law
Sheriff Arpaio: I’m Going To Enforce Our State Laws
AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio on FOX News today: “I’m not stopping anything. I’m going to continue to enforce those state laws regardless of what the federal government is trying to put pressure on me to satisfy all these activists, which by the way are in front of my building right now.”
“Three and half years they’ve been in front of my building. So, I’m not going to bend to the federal government, especially when we still have state laws to enforce.”
It’s not entirely clear what he means by “I’m not stopping anything” but the Supreme Court did strike down certain parts of the Arizona Law:
Supreme Court strikes down key parts of Arizona immigration law
The high court struck down parts of Arizona’s SB 1070 that made it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek work and to not to carry immigration papers. The justices also blocked a provision that gave the police authority to arrest immigrants for crimes that may lead to deportation.
“Federal law makes a single sovereign responsible for maintaining a comprehensive and unified system to keep track of aliens within the nation’s borders,’ Kennedy wrote. If Arizona could arrest and hold immigrants for not carrying papers, “every state could give itself independent authority to prosecute federal registration violations.”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor joined with Kennedy in an opinion that appears to give states little new authority to enforce immigration law on their own.
Does he mean that he’s going to ignore the Supreme Court ruling and continue to enforce the parts of the law that were struck down as unconstitutional?