A federal judge on Friday upheld a provision in Arizona’s controversial SB1070 law that allows law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of individuals while enforcing other laws, The Arizona Daily Sun reports.
Known colloquially as the “papers please” provision of the Arizona immigration law, the measure was challenged from the lower court level after being upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012. The High court, however, struck down other provisions of the law including a ban on working in the state as well as committing a crime for being in the state illegally.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton dismissed claims by detractors of the provision who say it will encourage police to discriminate against Latinos.
Additionally, Bolton upheld another area of SB1070, which mandates some kind of authentication as to whether someone who was previously arrested is in the country illegally.
“(It) addresses circumstances after an individual is already in custody,” Bolton wrote. “The law is not a source for state officials’ arrest or detention powers.”
Challengers to the law did get one victory for day laborers. Bolton dismissed a measure in the law that made it a crime for someone to stop a motor vehicle on the street and halt traffic while trying to hire someone to work in another area. That measure also made it illegal for a person looking for employment to go into the vehicle.