Almost two years to the day after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law the country’s strictest anti-illegal immigration policy, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments over whether the state crossed a red line by seizing the reins on immigration enforcement.
The hearing Wednesday morning has implications far beyond Arizona’s borders, as several states, including Alabama and South Carolina, have followed in Arizona’s footsteps to craft their own immigration enforcement measures.
The Obama administration, which opposes those measures, has argued that the country cannot sustain a patchwork of separate immigration laws.
Solicitor General Don Verrilli, who is arguing on behalf of the government, said in his brief that the Executive Branch has the power to enforce immigration policy.
“For each state, and each locality, to set its own immigration policy in that fashion would wholly subvert Congress’ goal: a single, national approach,” he wrote.
But Arizona argued that the current system is broken, and that the state is paying an unfair price for that failure.
“Arizona shoulders a disproportionate burden of the national problem of illegal immigration,” attorney Paul Clement argued in his brief. He argued that enforcement attention in California and Texas has turned the Arizona border into a funnel for illegal immigrants, with a third of illegal border crossings occurring there.
The attorney described Arizona’s law as a response to an “emergency situation” — with illegal immigrants soaking up millions of state dollars in health care and education, posing safety risks to ranchers and cutting into the state’s job market.
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