Zoeller: Parts of Indiana’s Immigration Law Can’t Be Defended

Attorney General Greg Zoeller says the recent U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Arizona’s immigration law means that certain parts of Indiana’s immigration law cannot be enforced.

Zoeller made the announcement in briefs filed in U.S District Court.   His office maintained that  Senate Enrolled Act 590 permitted local officers to make warrantless arrests based on immigration court removal orders, federal notice-of-action forms, 48-hour detainer requests or for being a foreign person who was indicted or convicted of an aggravated felony. The U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down as unconstitutional similar language in Arizona’s law. Because that is now the binding legal precedent, similar portions in Indiana’s law with one exception cannot remain standing either, Zoeller noted.

 In the State’s legal brief filed today in the Buquer case, Zoeller recommended the U.S. District Court strike down three of the four warrantless arrest provisions of the law that the Supreme Court has now said are unconstitutional. (The exception: Other statutes already allow local police to confine someone on a detainer for 48 hours at a federal agency’s request.) 

Zoeller also said…

“My office has defended the Indiana law the Legislature has passed from the legal challenges the plaintiffs filed for as long as possible. But once the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Arizona law, its decision is final; and we should defend the challenged portions only when we have a good-faith basis to do so. To disregard the Supreme Court’s guidance would not serve justice and would not be a good use of taxpayer resources, since the State could be ordered to pay the challenger’s attorneys fees..