Opinion: Court Ruling Underlines the Need for President to Enforce Federal Law

U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, released the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling today on Arizona’s SB 1070:

“It is a sad time in America when Arizona and other states feel the need to pass their own illegal immigration laws in light of the federal government’s failure to enforce federal laws on the books.

“Arizona’s law mirrored federal law. In striking down three provisions of the law, the court ruled today that Arizona may not fill the breach caused by the federal government’s failure to enforce immigration laws, which it did when the federal government’s failure to act placed the state’s citizens in danger and hurt its citizens’ ability to get jobs.

“To make matters worse, after the court upheld Arizona’s right to have police officers check the immigration status of drivers during traffic stops if they had a reasonable suspicion they were in the country illegally, the president further interfered with Arizona’s right to protect its citizens by declaring that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would no longer cooperate with local law enforcement.

“In the past several months, President Obama has unilaterally made it possible for more than a million illegal immigrants to continue to take American jobs by removing them from deportation proceedings and giving them working papers. Instead of putting more Americans on the unemployment line, President Obama should be enforcing federal immigration laws and cooperating with the states so Arizona’s SB 1070 and other protective state laws would be unnecessary.”