Today, the Department of Justice announced that it would file suit in federal court to block the implementation of Arizona’s discriminatory anti-immigrant legislation, SB 1070.  People For the American Way Foundation President Michael B. Keegan issued the following statement. 

“Arizonans have valid complaints about our nation’s immigration system, but passing a discriminatory and unconstitutional law like SB 1070 was the wrong response.  This law treats every Latino resident of the state—in fact, anyone who looks ‘foreign’—as a suspected criminal. It represents a threat to the Constitutional rights of every American. The Department of Justice is right to object to this law, and I applaud President Obama and Attorney General Holder for standing up for our Constitution and our values.  I’m optimistic that the DOJ’s lawsuit will be successful, and that this can be a starting point for a new conversation about how to reform our nation’s immigration policies.

"Instead of harsh, unworkable laws like SB 1070, we need comprehensive immigration reform that will fix our broken immigration system once and for all.  Congress should take this as a wake up call and begin work on fair, sensible immigration reform that does justice to our economy, our security and our core values of equality and respect for individual rights.  Immigration presents a serious challenge for our country, and we need serious solutions, not the extremism and political posturing that resulted in SB 1070.”

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