Monday, May 24, 2010
Judge Jay Bybee (photo: The Recorder, CalLaw.com)
Attorney General Eric Holder has said the Department of Justice is considering a lawsuit to stop the new immigration law in Arizona from going into effect. Such a move, though, might prove awkward unless the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) revokes a memo drafted during the Bush administration which sanctions the power of local police to arrest illegal immigrants.
The 2002 memo was crafted by former OLC lawyer Jay Bybee, who also wrote justifications for the Bush administration’s use of torture against terrorism suspects. The immigration memo said state police officers have “inherent power” to incarcerate undocumented immigrants for violating federal law, and it is being used by the author of the Arizona law, Sen. Russell Pearce, to defend its legality.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Memo from 2002 Could Complicate Challenge of Arizona Immigration Law (by Jerry Markon, Washington Post)
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