ACLU, Feds Coordinated Attack On Arizona

A public interest organization that uncovers and prosecutes corruption in government said it has confirmed from Department of Justice documents that the federal agency under Barack Obama's command worked hand-in-hand with the American Civil Liberties Union to attack Arizona over its tough new immigration law.

That law, SB 1070, now is being challenged before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It created applause from secure borders advocates and a furor among a wide range of immigrant rights advocacy organizations last year when state officials adopted plans to let state law enforcement officials crack down on illegal aliens who already are violating federal law.

Judicial Watch, the corruption-fighting Washington organization, earlier had submitted a filing in the court case on behalf of Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, the author of the state's SB 1070, asking the appeals court to reverse a preliminary injunction granted by a district court in July, just as the law was about to take effect.

That injunction has not yet been lifted.

The district court judge suspended four of SB 1070's key provisions as the Obama administration called the plan racist even though it specifically prohibits racial profiling.

Now Judicial Watch has posted online a file of nearly 100 pages of documents it obtained from the government, revealing that the DOJ "worked hand-in-hand with the American Civil Liberties Union."

The documents, obtained through the Federal Freedom of Information Act, revealed that there was an exchange of "touching base" e-mails between Lucas Guttentag, chief of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, and Edwin Kneedler, deputy solicitor general under the Obama administration's Department of Justice.

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