An agreement unveiled Thursday ends the last of seven challenges to the law that was criticized for requiring officers to question the immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally.
Advertisement
The settlement agreement ends a long and costly court battle between the state and civil rights groups over the 2010 law, which opponents say has led to racial profiling and wrongful detentions.
“They can not hold that person even a second longer once they complete the reason for the state law arrest”, Viramontes said.
The deal, filed in federal court in Phoenix, still must be formally approved by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton.
The Arizona law quickly became a model for other states where lawmakers saw it as a way to take on the federal government’s approach to immigration.
The guidelines say local and state officers generally lack the power to detain people for civil immigration violations and forbid officers from prolonging traffic stops and detentions exclusively for the objective of verifying a person’s immigration status.
Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement, “Our goal while negotiating this settlement was to find a common sense solution that protects Arizona taxpayers while helping our great state move forward”.
The measure, which required police officers to check the immigration status of everyone they stopped, sparked nationwide controversy when signed into law in April 2010 by then Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.
Several elements of SB 1070 were nearly immediately challenged, and much of it was struck down in court rulings that went as high as the Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court (link is external) also upheld section 2 (b).
Advertisement
The “show me your papers” section was upheld, with the caveat that law enforcement officers apply it only in cases in which they have reasonable suspicion that the person they are questioning is in the country illegally.
