Gov. Jan Brewer says the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-3 decision to uphold part of Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which she signed into law in April 2010, is a victory for all Americans.
But immigrant rights supporters say the decision marks a loss for Gov. Brewer.
Which is it?
The court struck down three major provisions: requiring all immigrants to obtain or carry immigration registration papers, making it a crime for illegal immigrants to seek work in Arizona and allowing allowing police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants without warrants.
The justices did uphold the provision that allows state police to stop, question, and briefly detain immigrants if state officers have a reasonable suspicion the immigrants are illegally in the U.S. But even then, state law enforcement must check with federal immigration agents before taking suspects into custody.
When Gov. Brewer held a news conference about four hours after the decision was announced, reporters pointed out that many provisions of the law had been stripped.
But she simply repeated the “heart” of the law was “vindicated by the highest court of the land.”
“It’s certainly not the end of our journey,” Brewer finally conceded. “We expect lawsuits to be filed.”
In her opening statement, Brewer dissed Democrats in Washington, saying they “failed the American people regarding immigration policy,” repeating the untruth that President Obama had a filibuster proof majority for two years.
“We also cannot forget that President Obama and and his party had both houses in Congress for two years and could’ve secured our borders and fulfilled the promise to fix our broken immigration system,” Brewer said. “They failed.”
In reality, Democrats had a filibuster proof majority for less than seven months, from the day Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) was sworn in on July 7, 2009, until Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) was sworn in on Feb. 4, 2010. Of course, Brewer is not immune to making false claims or showing disrespectful behavior. While running for re-election in 2010, she falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants are pouring into the country to decapitate innocent Americans. And in January of this year, Brewer wagged her finger at President Obama when she greeted him upon his arrival in Phoenix. Ed will look at today’s immigration ruling tonight at 8pET on The Ed Show on msnbc with U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Arizona).
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