And there is nothing there against what I said, it sucks to Jan but the reality remains, it belongs to the Federal government the right to prosecute. If Arizona wants to abuse and overreach on who to prosecute that is fine, just do not expect the federal government to agree on who to prosecute.
They aren’t following the law, because the law is not just about illegal immigrants. It includes rules on who has the right to enforce it. And that is the federal executive branch, and thus prosecuting those they do not choose to prosecute is violating the law, due to the supremacy clause.
Arizona wasn’t trying to prosecute anyone. It can’t. It was trying to hold them for further action by the feds, which is slightly different.
Darn it, I really have to add a sarcasm tag to my posts, the part of “If Arizona wants to abuse and overreach on who to prosecute, that is fine” was indeed sarcasm. I actually expect Arpaio and henchmen to continue with the abuse.
The law goes into effect next week. Opponents just lost a last-ditch effort to try to get a federal court to further hold off. Arizona may indeed check people for immigration violations as permitted in their law, but of course cannot prosecute those violations – they can notify the feds and that’s it.