JURIST - Paper Chase: DOJ challenges Utah immigration law

JURIST - Paper Chase: DOJ challenges Utah immigration law

"x x x

Utah's adoption of its own immigration policy disrupts the federal government's ability both to administer and enforce the federal immigration laws including as set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act, and to establish and pursue federal policies and priorities pertaining to, inter alia, the identification, apprehension, detention and removal of aliens unlawfully in the United States. By contributing to this state-specific immigration policy, the challenged provisions of H.B. 497 represent an attempt to regulate in an area constitutionally reserved to the federal government, forcing a conflict with the federal immigration laws and federal immigration policy, interfering with federal primacy in managing the nation's foreign affairs and in balancing the competing objectives of immigration policy, and impeding the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress. Sections 3, 10, and 11 of H.B. 497 are therefore preempted.

x x x "