New challenge filed over Indiana immigration law
HAMMOND, Ind. — A Hispanic advocacy group from northwestern Indiana has launched a second legal challenge to the immigration law approved by state legislators this year.
East Chicago-based Union Benefica Mexicana filed the lawsuit Tuesday with the federal court in Hammond, claiming portions of the new state law are unconstitutional. A federal judge has blocked parts of the law from taking effect following a similar pending lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.
State Attorney General Greg Zoeller said that his office wanted to postpone action on both lawsuits until after the U.S. Supreme Court considers the challenge to Arizona's immigration law.
“Indiana will join with other states in seeking a ruling from the Supreme Court that will provide some guidance to states on immigration, since Congress has thus far failed to enact or enforce federal immigration policies,” Zoeller told The Times of Munster.
Opponents contend the Indiana law gives police officers sweeping arrest powers against immigrants who haven't committed crimes.
A federal judge in Indianapolis hearing the ACLU's challenge in June blocked a provision in the state law allowing the arrest of anyone who has had a notice of action filed by immigration authorities, a formal paperwork step that affects virtually anyone applying to be in the U.S. for any reason. Another provision that the judge blocked makes it illegal for immigrants to use ID cards issued by foreign consulates as proof of identification.
Union Benefica Mexicana, which provides cultural, educational and health programs, argues in its lawsuit that creating a state immigration system “encroaches on the federal government's exclusive power to regulate immigration, and will lead to erroneous determinations by state and local officials of an individual's immigration status.”
The group also claims it has had to divert resources to assisting people affected by the new law and that it deters some from seeking legal immigrant status because local police officers will continue to stop and detain them anyway.