Arizona to Sue Obama Over Immigration Enforcement
FoxNews.com
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Thursday that her state will file a countersuit against the federal government, claiming Washington has failed to enforce immigration law along the southern border.
The governor said the federal government hasn’t secured the state’s border with Mexico and has stuck Arizona with the costs tied to illegal immigration.
“Because the federal government has failed to protect the citizens of Arizona, I am left with no other choice,” Brewer said.
The announcement is the latest swipe in the ongoing legal dispute between Arizona and the U.S. Department of Justice over the state’s tough immigration law. After the Obama administration challenged that law, a judge last year blocked key portions of it from going into effect. While the case is on appeal, Brewer said the countersuit will be filed as part of the federal government’s challenge.
“It’s outrageous the United States Department of Justice sued the people of Arizona to stop Senate Bill 1070,” Brewer said. “Our message for the federal government is very simple — use federal resources to combat the cartels who are breaking the federal law.”
Arizona plans to sue on five different counts, including a claim that the federal government has failed to enforce immigration laws enacted by Congress and a claim it has failed to reimburse the state for costs associated with jailing criminal immigrants.
The Top Stories We Broke in 2010
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com
As we end 2010 and begin a new year, the media take a look back at the year gone by. We too wish to look back at all the stories this website has broken in the few months of our existence. Some have been ignored, others have been reported nationally — without credit to those of us who discovered them. Nonetheless, we are happy the information has spread and look forward to leading the charge in 2011. We want to take this time to celebrate all we have accomplished in so little time by highlighting a baker’s dozen of stories that we broke. Counting down our stories, from least to greatest.
13. Obama Apologizes to Guatemala for a Guatemalan Government Experiment (story). On October 1, Barack Obama phoned Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom with a heavy heart. He learned that from 1946-48, the U.S. Public Health Service had tested the effectiveness of penicillin in treating syphilis by infecting Guatemalan prisoners and soldiers with the disease, then treating them. Guatemalan politicians howled for “compensation,” and Obama promised “a thorough investigation.” The experiments — discovered by Susan Reverby of Wellesley College and revealed in the January issue of the Journal of Policy History — were inhumane. However, Reverby noted one fact Obama overlooked: The Guatemalan government approved of the experiments at the time. The story shows Obama’s focus on what he describes as America’s “tragic history” and absurd reflex to apologize for American behavior. In this case, the courageous leader of the free world apologized to the president of a third world backwater for experiments both their governments approved and conducted before either one of them was alive.
12. Oklahoma’s Muslim Law Ban Struck Down by Clinton Diversity Pick (story). On election day 2010, more than 70 percent of Oklahoma voters approved State Question 755, which forbids state courts from considering Islamic religious law, Shari’a, in pending court cases. However, federal judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange of the 10th Circuit Court issued a series of injunctions against the measure. In her tangled view, a law prohibiting judges from deciding cases based on religious law constituted an attack on the First Amendment. As we alone exposed, Miles-LaGrange, whom Bill Clinton appointed in 1994 as “first African-American federal judge in the six states that make up the 10th Circuit,” is a thoroughgoing mediocrity who has spent her entire career benefiting from or promoting Affirmative Action. She now sees Muslims as the next victims of an oppressive Christian America. Remember this the next time someone calls Bill Clinton a “moderate.”
11. Left-Winger Confirms Obama’s “Covert Propaganda” Scandal (story). In August, Rep. Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a 36-page report accusing Barack Obama of engaging in “covert propaganda” activities that were “inappropriate and sometimes unlawful.” The White House, Issa wrote, would enlist third parties to promote its talking points without mentioning its connection to Obama, a move he alleges is illegal (and thus impeachable). Within days, far-Left activist Sally Kohn confirmed another facet of this story on The Huffington Post. I reported the administration invited Kohn to a May 2009 “cultural policy summit” with five dozen other radical activists and extremists. Kohn wrote this was the beginning of the Obama administration’s weekly “Common Purpose” meetings, where “the White House dictated its agenda and appealed to the professional left for back-up.” Kohn, a onetime Ford Foundation employee, is a self-described “Jewish lesbian” who once wrote a DailyKos diary entry entitled, “Why I Have a Little Crush on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” Her allegations that the president used them in a covert propaganda campaign are worthy of inclusion in an investigation of this scandal. To date, no one else has noticed them.
10. Obama’s Stimulus Put Microchips in Your Trash (story). Nearly half-a-million dollars of the stimulus bill went to….
Arizona Legislator Calls Obama’s Actions “Impeachable”
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com
The campaign to impeach Barack Obama has a distinguished new advocate: Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, who authored Arizona’s immigration law S.B. 1070. During a speech on November 19, Pearce told an audience:
Think about it. This is the first time in the history of the United States that a sitting president has sided with a foreign government to sue the citizens of its country. For defending our laws? For defending and protecting the citizens of the state of Arizona? It’s outrageous, and it’s impeachable.
Senator Pearce was referring to the Obama administration’s decision to invite 11 Central and South American nations to join the federal government’s lawsuit against Arizona. This outsourcing ignores the president’s….
Obama Sends Feds to Harass Arizona Poll Watchers at SEIU’s Request
Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com
As part of its traditional Friday news dump, the Obama administration announced the Justice Department will be sending “400 federal observers to 30 jurisdictions in 18 states” to oversee the midterm elections. Unfortunately, the feds will not attempt to keep illegal immigrants or fraudulent voters from casting a ballot; instead, they will harass poll watchers who try to assure everyone admitted to the polls is properly registered. Moreover, Obama is dispatching the observers at the specific request of the Hispanic political arm of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
The federal locusts who will descend upon America’s fields of suffrage will include 85 lawyers (“monitors”) and an additional 335 “observers” who will watch local officials “for a variety of potential infractions ranging from voter intimidation or coercion targeting voters because of their race, color, national origin, religion or language skills.”
That’s right; the monitors will make sure local election workers do not unduly burden would-be voters by asking for identification too often, or challenging the voting status of any one ethnic group more than any other. The action will bludgeon poll watchers into submission and ease the process for any illegal alien or fraudulent voter to cast a ballot.
CNN notes a number of DoJ attorneys have been assigned to Maricopa County, Arizona, the home of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Curiously, the announcement came one day after the Justice Department received a plea from an organization called Mi Familia Vota (MFV) for the feds to send agents to Maricopa County. (Others claim the Obama administration had decided to send agents to the area long before receiving the letter. The request simply provides the department with an additional level of local, “grassroots” cover.)
Eric Holder will undoubtedly try to portray his action as a response to a complaint from a civil rights organization. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mi Familia Vota is merely the political arm of the labor union closest to the president.
Video of the Day: Brewer, Obama Wants Illegals to Vote Democrat
Obama Outsources His War on Arizona
Ben Johnson, Floyd Reports
Like so many Americans before him, Barack Obama has enlisted Mexican labor to do a job for him. In this case, the president is outsourcing his legal war against the state of Arizona’s immigration law.
First, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner – undoubtedly on his boss’ orders – called Arizona’s S.B. 1070 a human rights violation during a conversation with Chinese officials. Then Obama hauled Arizona before the UN Human Rights Council in his first-ever report to the human rights abusers on its board. After Governor Jan Brewer learned about it – from us – she asked the State Department to pull the reference, but Foggy Bottom refused. Last week, the UN’s Global Migration Group, chaired by the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a new report blasting opponents of Open Borders and welfare for illegal aliens as “xenophobes and racists.” Now, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed 11 foreign nations to join the Obama administration’s lawsuit against the law, United States of America v. State of Arizona. Mexico led the way, adding El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru. Mexico’s legal filing states, “Mexico seeks to ensure that its citizens present in the U.S. are accorded the human and civil rights granted under the U.S. Constitution.”
KUHNER: Should Arizona secede?
By Jeffrey T. Kuhner- The Washington Times
Judicial activism is pushing America to the breaking point. This week, a federal judge blocked key provisions of Arizona’s immigration law, thwarting the will of the people. The decision was ominous and will reverberate for years to come.
Judge Susan Bolton, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, is a liberal elitist who believes judicial imperialism trumps democracy. Her ruling states that local police cannot check the immigration status of people arrested or stopped for violations of the law. In her view, that would amount to an abuse of civil liberties and unduly burden the federal immigration system. She also stipulated that residents cannot be required to carry proof of legal status.
Her decision strikes at the very heart of the Arizona law, S.B. 1070. Supported by President Obama’s Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union, the ruling sets the stage for a protracted legal battle. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vows to appeal the ruling – all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. In the meantime, the people of Arizona – and America – will continue to endure the onslaught of illegal immigration.
Mr. Obama’s decision to sue Arizona is a betrayal of his constitutional oath to secure our porous border. The administration’s spin is that the "border has never been more secure." It points to an influx of Border Patrol agents and more resources devoted to enforcement technology. Yet the reality remains: Aliens continue to cross every day. Arizona is home to more than a half-million illegal immigrants. Phoenix has become the kidnapping capital of America. Mexican drug lords order contract killings on Arizona sheriffs. Violent crime is pervasive. Instead of helping the people in need of protection, Mr. Obama is in effect siding with the lawbreakers.
Brewer Seeks Dismissal of Obama Challenge to Immigration Law
Fox News
Attorneys for Gov. Jan Brewer have asked a judge to throw out the U.S. Justice Department’s challenge to the state of Arizona’s new immigration law.
The governor’s lawyers said Monday the federal government hasn’t shown it has suffered actual harm from the law and instead bases its claim on speculation.
The federal government says the state law is trumped by federal law and that it has hurt U.S. relations with Mexico. It is scheduled to take effect Thursday.
Attorneys for Brewer say Mexico’s disapproval of the law doesn’t make it unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton is considering requests by the Justice Department, a Phoenix police officer and civil rights groups to put the law on hold.
Judge Slams Obama in Arizona Lawsuit
By Jerry Markon, WaPo
A federal judge pushed back Thursday against a contention by the Obama Justice Department that a tough new Arizona immigration law set to take effect next week would cause "irreparable harm" and intrude into federal immigration enforcement.
"Why can’t Arizona be as inhospitable as they wish to people who have entered or remained in the United States?" U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton asked in a pointed exchange with Deputy Solicitor General Edwin S. Kneedler. Her comment came during a rare federal court hearing in the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer (R).
Bolton, a Democratic appointee, also questioned a core part of the Justice Department’s argument that she should declare the law unconstitutional: that it is "preempted" by federal law because immigration enforcement is an exclusive federal prerogative.
"How is there a preemption issue?" the judge asked. "I understand there may be other issues, but you’re arguing preemption. Where is the preemption if everybody who is arrested for some crime has their immigration status checked?"
Arizona Governor can force Obama to prove he’s eligible
Abigail Adams, The Post and E-mail
Dear Editor: The following email was sent to psenseman@az.gov, Governor Brewer’s press secretary:
July 11, 2010
The Boston Tea Party was a protest against taxation without representation. But is our representation today by the U.S. Congress any better than the colonists’ representation by the British Parliament in 1773?
Dear Mr. Senseman,
As you know, there are many unanswered questions about Barack Hussein Obama’s constitutional qualifications to act as President of the United States. Governor Brewer, or any sitting governor, for that matter, has unique standing to challenge Obama on this issue and resolve the constitutional crisis he has perpetrated on the nation by his refusal to prove that he is a “natural born Citizen” by filing a Writ of Quo Warranto.
The American people are looking to Governor Brewer to defend her state as she is doing, but also to challenge a man who has most likely assumed the office of President through dissembling and deceit, wire fraud, election fraud, and document fraud.
There is a tremendous amount of circumstantial and other evidence which points to a foreign birth for Obama, and by his own admission, he was born a dual citizen. He has also carefully described himself as “a native citizen of the United States of America” but not a “natural born Citizen.”
Article II, Section 1, paragraph 5 of the U.S. Constitution states:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
It is impossible for Obama to be a “natural born Citizen” if he was born with dual citizenship, and “native born” is not the same as “natural born.” Since he has never shown his original birth certificate, we also do not know his actual age.
Congress refused to check on Obama’s qualifications for office, despite thousands of requests to do so by concerned constituents before the certification of electoral votes in January 2009.
It makes no sense to mount an expensive legal defense when Governor Brewer could simply ask Obama “By what authority” his Department of Justice is suing her state and naming her as a defendant.
