Arizona: New Challenge Puts ‘Show Me Your Papers’ Provision on Hold

The one part of the Arizona immigration law that survived the Supreme Court’s decision in June may be a step closer to implementation, but its ultimate fate has yet to be decided.

The provision known as “show me your papers” — which requires police conduct mandatory immigration checks on people stopped for arrested for another reason — is back in the hands of U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, after routing through the high court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit , the Associated Press reported.

Judge Bolton could remove the injunction on the regulation, which she ordered in 2010, but a decision may be several weeks away, because civil and immigration rights groups have filed a motion asking for the enforcement to be blocked.

The motion argues that the “show me your papers” provision will lead to the unconstitutional detention of people and racial profiling against Hispanics, regardless of their immigration status, according to FoxNews Latino.

“We’re asking the judge to take into account our request to halt the implementation based on examples we’re going to present next week concerning people who are being detained for longer periods to verify their immigration status,” Alessandra Soler, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said to Spanish news agency EFE.

The ACLU — which filed a complaint against the State of Arizona over the immigration law and last month asked for the remaining section of the law to be blocked — hopes the judge will wait to consider the pending case before enforcing the provision. The Supreme Court’s ruling in June said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to block the provision. The ACLU is focusing on presenting that evidence — examples of people being detained to verify their immigration status — despite the provision not being in force.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority in the Supreme Court decision, said if the “show me your papers” regulation “only requires state officers to conduct a status check during the course of an authorized, lawful detention or after a detainee has been released, the provision would likely survive preemption — at least absent some showing that it has other consequences that are adverse to federal law and its objectives.”

The state has until Friday to respond to the ACLU’s motion, and Judge Bolton gave an additional week for plaintiffs to respond, which means a decision isn’t likely to come before Aug. 17.

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France declares war on illegal immigrants: Socialist government smashes up gipsy camps just days after Greece rounded up thousands of migrants

France's socialist government has begun smashing up Roma gipsy camps across the country and deporting the illegal immigrants living in them.

It comes days after Greek police rounded up 6,000 migrants in Athens at the weekend - detaining 1,600 for deportation.

Destruction of Roma gipsy camps and deportations began in Paris yesterday and will move to other major French cities, where camps have mushroomed in recent years.

Caravans and huts were destroyed in Paris, leaving an estimated 100 people homeless, including women and children.

An estimated 300 Romas have lost their homes in France this week as another hundred were today moved on from a site in Villleurbanne, a district of Lyon, with similar round-ups happening in other major cities including Marseille.

An Interior Ministry source said many of those evicted will be flown to Romania before the end of this week, adding that the deportations were all aimed at ridding France of 'illegal' communities.

It echoes the action taken in debt-ridden Greece where thousands of suspected illegal immigrants were rounded up in major cities this week.

Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said Greece could not afford an ‘invasion of immigrants’, blaming mass immigration for bringing the country to the ‘brink of collapse’.

The stance on illegal Roma gypsies by the new socialist government in France is a result of a controversial policy formulated by conservative ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was frequently accused of trying to win over far right nationalists objecting to foreigners settling in France.

But despite a new government on the other side of the French political spectrum, the policy has stood firm.

The former government linked Roma camps with crime, suggesting that many of the sneak thieves and muggers operating in cities like Paris were Romanians without fixed abodes.

With a socialist government in place many expected a more relaxed attitude towards immigrants and especially ones from other European Union countries like Romania.

But Manuel Valls, the new Interior Minister, said the camps were a 'challenge' to 'people living together', and said the police would uphold all court orders aimed at dismantling them.

Mr Valls said neighbours of the camps often complained about noise and anti-social behaviour, as well as serious crimes.

Humanitarian organisations have warned that the camps are linked to ill-health, including serious diseases like tuberculosis.

He assured that everything would be done to ensure that vulnerable people, and particularly 'children and pregnant women', were re-housed as quickly as possible.

Mr Sarkozy started a purge on Romas in the summer of 2010, pointing to the fact that up to 15,000 were living in camps across France.

Mr Sarkozy even proposed that French police travel to Romania to fight trafficking and other crimes by Roma.

In turn, Roma groups accused Mr Sarkozy of 'ethnic cleansing', in reference to gypsies had been targeted by the Nazis during World War II.

They claim that the purge is part of a generally racist strategy adopted by Mr Sarkozy against all foreign groups, including some six million Muslims living in France.

Romania has been a full member of the European Union since 2007, and its citizens can enter France without a visa, but they must get residency permits if they want to settle long term and work.

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