Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broke the news that the Justice Department would bring a lawsuit against Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070. Since then, the White House has confirmed the news and the suit is expected to be filed next week. On the surface, this is great. The law in Arizona would enshrine racial profiling into law and the administration should be taking steps to ensure the law is repealed. However, the move should only be seen as a small step forward in the fight for immigrant justice in the United States.

John Aravosis, from AmericaBlog, drives this points home:

At first blush, this is great. But what worries me is that the Latinos are being played the same way the gays have been played. Rather than pass comprehensive immigration reform this year, as promised, the administration is weighing in on a high-profile case that, heinous as it is, only affects one state. It’s an easy to way score points on immigration without doing the heavy lifting of trying to pass real national reform. Had the administration gotten real reform passed, this suit would be welcomed. But without national reform, the suit is a sorry substitute.

It is because of the broken promises of immigration reform that the Arizona law exists. Stopping SB 1070 is important, but it’s only a band aid on what is clearly a broken system. I will applaud the Department of Justice for this first step when it happens. But I won’t be satisfied (and neither will millions of others) until reform is enacted at the federal level. That is the only true solution.

Categories: Arizona, comprehensive immigration reform

Tags: Arizona, arizona immigration law, department of justice, governor jan brewer, immigration reform, obama on arizona