WASHINGTON — Top Justice Department officials have drafted a legal challenge that could be filed in federal court in Arizona asserting that the state’s new immigration law is unconstitutional because it impinges on the federal government’s inherent authority to police the border with Mexico, sources said Wednesday.
At the same time, government officials said, the civil rights division is considering legal action on the basis that the law amounts to racial profiling of Latinos who are legally in Arizona but conceivably could be asked to provide documents proving their citizenship.
Attorney General Eric Holder met on Wednesday with 10 police chiefs who object to the law, and he promised them he would act on the recommendations “soon,” a spokesman said.
The police chiefs urged him and the Obama administration, which has reservations about the Arizona law, to stop it from going into effect because they said it would seriously hamper local police work if officers are asked to serve as border police.
“He did say that the Justice Department is seriously considering what they would do, and that could come very soon,” said Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a think tank that helped coordinate the meeting between the police chiefs and Holder.
One of the chiefs who met with Holder was Los Angeles Chief Charlie Beck, who said afterward that he told Holder that “legislation like this inhibits us from doing our jobs” and will deter immigrants from reporting crimes, either as victims or witnesses.
“The fear of the police already inhibits immigrants from coming forward to a certain extent,” Beck said. “But if you add this, you increase the reluctance tenfold.”
A dozen or more states are considering legislation mirroring the Arizona law, which goes into effect in July. That support is part of what is pushing Holder and the White House to consider swift action.
Justice Department chief spokesman Matthew Miller acknowledged that Holder told the police chiefs that a decision on federal action will come “soon.” But, Miller cautioned, “the review is still on.”
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