Fight over Arizona's migrant law heads to the courts

The controversy over Arizona's new immigration law heated up further Monday when a powerful coalition of civil rights and immigration advocates asked a U.S. federal court to find the new law unconstitutional and issue an injunction against its taking effect. The lawsuit named the state's sheriffs and county attorneys - those who would have to enforce the legislation - as defendants. The new law, which mandates police officers to demand identification if there is 'reasonable suspicion' a person is in the U.S. illegally, is set to become effective in late July. The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. The groups charged that the law "violates the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law because it unlawfully invites the racial profiling of Latinos and other people who look or sound 'foreign-born'. It also violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution by interfering with the federal government's authority to regulate and enforce immigration."