Holder leaves open possibility of racial profiling lawsuit against Arizona

U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder left open the possibility of filing an additional lawsuit against the
state of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

In an interview with CBS News
host Bob Schieffer, the nation’s top law enforcement official explained that
the United States may still challenge the Arizona law based on racial
profiling.

{mosads}The Justice
Department challenged the Arizona law on July 6 on the basis that it preempts
the federal Constitution, not that it would result in racial profiling.

“It doesn’t mean that if the
law, for whatever reason, happened to go into effect that six months from now,
a year from now, we might not look at the impact the law has had in whether or
not to see to whether or not there has been that racial profiling impact,”
Holder said. “And if that was the case, we would have the tools and we would
bring suit on that basis.”

But he said that federal law
preemption stood the best chance of overturning Arizona’s new law set to take
effect on July 29, which requires police to check the immigration status of
individuals stopped.

“We have an immigration
policy that takes into account a whole variety of things, international
relations, national security concerns,” Holder said. “And it is the
responsibility of the federal government, as opposed to states doing it on a
patchwork basis, to decide exactly what it is our policy should be with regard
to immigration. And it was on that basis that we filed the lawsuit.”

But supporters of the state
law argue that the federal government isn’t enforcing current immigration laws,
which leaves states with no other recourse besides codifying and enforcing
those laws on a local basis.

Arizona Rep. Trent Franks (R)
told CNN host Candy Crowley on Sunday his state acted because the federal
government wasn’t enforcing laws already on the books.

“Essentially Arizona has just
codified that in state law. And it’s ironic that, you know, with all of the
arguments that this is somehow about racial profiling, I think the president of
the United States has spoken knowing falsehoods about this bill, because the
bill itself, in numerous cases, numerous places, outlaws racial profiling. And
it’s just astonishing,” Franks said.

Crowley noted on her show
that at least 17 states have similar laws in the works.

New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson (D) told Crowley that the law has already had an effect
internationally, noting that a meeting between U.S. and Mexico border state
governors set to take place in Arizona was canceled due to a boycott by Mexican
governors. The governors say the law is prejudicial.

“We have six Mexican border
governors refusing to attend a yearly border conference with American border
governors because of this incident, because of this issue in Arizona,”
Richardson said. “So it is harming our foreign policy.”

White House senior adviser
David Axelrod joined Richardson in calling for comprehensive immigration reform
and blamed Republicans for inaction on the hot-button issue.

“The reality is that for the
last time this debate occurred in the Senate, there were 11 Republicans who
joined in, and, of course, President Bush helped to lead the effort. And most
of those Republicans are not willing to move forward,” Axelrod told Crowley on “State
of the Nation.”

Axelrod then called on “those
folks on the other side of the aisle, who said in the past that they thought
this was an important issue to solve, to join us.

“And when they are willing, then we will be able to move
forward.”