# Should the Justice Dept fight California's "Anti-Arizona" bill?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-justice-dept-fight-californias-anti-arizona-bill/627931>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 11, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-justice-dept-fight-californias-anti-arizona-bill/627931 "2012-07-11T21:35:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-justice-dept-fight-californias-anti-arizona-bill/627931/21 "2012-07-14T19:31:54Z")

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> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> It kind of did. It made being an illegal or paperless immigrant in Arizona a state crime.

Which does not contradict Federal Law. What happened was the the Feds chose not to enforce that law so Arizona made it a state law and told the Feds that they could not stop them from enforcing Arizona law. The Courts said yes they can because the Supremacy Clause prevents end-arounds of enforcement policy like that.

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**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-justice-dept-fight-californias-anti-arizona-bill/627931/22 "2012-07-14T20:04:45Z")

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And now the feds are also going after cities that explicitly don’t cooperate with federal deportation policy:

> **[Sanctuary cities may be facing legal action](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/10/sanctuary-cities-may-be-facing-legal-action/)**
>
> After eviscerating most of Arizona’s strict immigration law in court last month, the Obama administration is now considering going after the other side by suing sanctuary cities to force them to cooperate with federal deportation efforts, an agency...

So the bottom line is that the feds find themselves to conflicted to do anything substantial for the last half century, but they pounce like cats when anybody else tries to make a move.

So…incidental gridlock, or intentional stalling?

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