First major hearing to be held Thursday in Arizona immigration law challenges

Judge to hear arguments over blocking Ariz. law

PHOENIX — A federal judge will hold the first major court hearing in one of the seven legal challenges to Arizona’s new immigration law.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton was scheduled to hear arguments Thursday over Gov. Jan Brewer’s request to dismiss the challenge filed by Phoenix police Officer David Salgado and the statewide nonprofit group Chicanos Por La Causa.

Bolton also will listen to arguments in the officer’s request to temporarily put the law on hold and prevent it from taking effect on July 29.

The law requires police, while enforcing other laws, to question a person’s immigration status if officers have a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally.

It also makes it a state crime for immigrants to not carry immigration documents.

The other challenges to the law were filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, civil rights organizations, clergy groups, a researcher from Washington and a Tucson police officer.

Bolton will hold similar hearings on July 22 in the lawsuits filed by the federal government and civil rights groups.

Last week, the judge said she wasn’t making any promises on whether she will rule on requests to block enforcement of the law before it takes effect.

Salgado’s attorneys argue the judge should block the law before it takes effect because it would require him to use race as a primary factor in enforcing the law and because the state law is trumped by federal immigration law.

Attorneys for Brewer, who signed the measure into law, asked that the officer’s lawsuit be thrown out because he hasn’t alleged a real threat of harm from enforcing the new law and instead bases his claim on speculation.

The governor’s lawyers also said the law prohibits racial profiling and that it isn’t trumped by federal immigration because it doesn’t try to regulate the conditions under which people can enter and leave the country.