Justice Department files lawsuit over Alabama immigration law

The Justice Department has filed a complaint and brief in the Northern District of Alabama against the Alabama immigration law H.B. 56. The department said that various provisions of the state law conflict with federal immigration law and undermine the federal government’s careful balance of immigration enforcement priorities and objectives. The brief said a state cannot set its own immigration policy, much less pass laws that conflict with federal enforcement of the immigration laws.

The Justice Department said Alabama’s law affects virtually every aspect of an unauthorized immigrant’s daily life. The department said the law further criminalizes the unlawful presence and, like Arizona’s immigration law S.B. 1070, expands the opportunities for Alabama police to push aliens toward incarceration for various new immigration crimes by enforcing an immigration status verification system.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the filing of the lawsuit “makes clear that setting immigration policy and enforcing immigration laws is a national responsibility that cannot be addressed through a patchwork of state immigration laws.” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “To the extent we find state laws that interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of immigration law, we are prepared to bring suit, as we did in Arizona.”