Obama Targets More State Immigration Laws

Justice Department lawyers are reviewing four new state laws targeting illegal immigrants in a move that signals an escalation in the Obama administration’s battle with the tough laws. The Justice Department has already sued Arizona and Alabama over their laws, The Washington Post reported.

The four new laws under scrutiny are from Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah. “I don’t recall any time in history that the Justice Department has so aggressively challenged state laws,” Jonathan Turley, of the George Washington University Law School, told the Post.

While Republican presidential candidates are calling for getting tough on illegal immigrations, President Barack Obama is working the other side of the street. He recently told a group of Latino reporters Arizona’s immigration law created “a great danger that naturalized citizens, individuals with Latino surnames, potentially could be vulnerable to questioning. The laws could be potentially abused in ways that were not fair to Latino citizens,” the Post reported.

The Obama administration has been criticized for suing over Arizona’s law, with conservatives charging the suit is being used to court Hispanic voters. The charges have been denied and Obama told the Hispanic journalists that “we can’t have a patchwork of 50 states with 50 different immigration laws,” the Post reported.