The Arizona-Mexico border. Photo credit: Allen Ormond

The US Justice Department’s lawsuit against Arizona over the state’s controversial new immigration law, filed on July 6, is likely to be the toughest test the law will face.

The US Justice Department, with full backing of the Obama Administration, filed a federal lawsuit in a Phoenix District Court against Arizona on July 6, in an effort to keep the state’s controversial new immigration law from coming into effect as scheduled on July 29. The fed are challenging the constitutionality of the law, claiming that it undermines the authority of the federal government, which is charged with the protection of America’s borders, and could result in racial profiling. So far, this is the sixth lawsuit the new law faces, with others coming from Arizona law enforcement officials and municipalities, in addition to civil rights groups.

Unsurprisingly given the debate the law stirred up across America, the US media is divided in its reception of the Justice Department’s lawsuit. The Washington Post, in one of its leading editorials today, lauded the Justice Department for challenging the “harsh” law, which requires local law enforcement officials to inquire about the immigrant status of individuals lawfully stopped and requires legal immigrants to carry their documents with them. The paper also believed in the strength of the Justice Department’s arguments, particularly “that allowing states to set their own policy toward immigration could harm U.S. foreign policy and lead to highly disparate treatment of immigrants from state to state.” At the same time, The Washington Post, like several other observers and editorials, didn’t think that the lawsuit was enough: Immigration reform is necessary, and fast. “Congress for years has ignored practical realities and succumbed to xenophobia and fear-mongering to derail efforts to craft sensible immigration reforms…. The federal government has improved border security; now it needs to provide a pathway for citizenship for those who entered illegally but have otherwise been productive members of society,” the paper advised. “President Obama has promised to take up the challenge of immigration reform, but promising action while suing Arizona isn’t good enough.”

But USA Today argued that suing Arizona may let the Obama Administration “feel righteous” for a bit, but it won’t advance the real discussion on immigration reform and could in fact hurt it. The Wall Street Journal, in one of its leading editorials, agreed, claiming that Obama may claim that he wants bipartisan support for immigration reform, but he’s using the immigration law and his fight against it to mobilise the Latino vote against the Republican Party ahead of the November mid-term elections — a move that will do little to deliver that bipartisan consensus. Bill McGurn of The Wall Street Journal also agreed: In this video discussion, he explained why he doesn’t think that suing Arizona is good way to ramp up bipartisan support for immigration reform.

The Arizona Republic, in one of its leading editorials, claimed that the lawsuit makes the Obama Administration appear obstructionist: “With its lawsuit against Arizona’s illegal-immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, the Obama administration underscores the perception of a huge majority of Americans that the federal government is content to maintain a porous border.” The paper noted that it believes the law is “useless” and will do little bolster border security, but “To sue a state for its law while offering no constructive answers makes the federal government look obstructionist.”

Still, some civil rights groups are cheering: In an op-ed that appeared in USA Today, Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza, the US’s largest Hispanic and Latino rights organization, lauded the Justice Department for taking an “essential and appropriate step”: “What is happening in Arizona is a regression from the freedoms and values we hold dear as a country. To those who point to the law’s popularity, I would remind them that Jim Crow laws were once as popular.” However, Murguia, like other supporters of the lawsuit, noted that much more is needed to address immigration in the US: “The solution to our broken immigration system must be comprehensive. The American people understand this, the president and some Democrats in Congress understand this, and Republicans need to understand this and work with their colleagues to pass a comprehensive reform bill.”