Judge nixes injunction during appeal of sanctions ruling
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PHOENIX - A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request by business groups to put Arizona's employer sanctions law on hold while the groups appeal a ruling that upheld the law.
In rejecting the injunction request, U.S. District Judge Neil Wake ruled that the business groups "don't have a probability of success of appeal, much less a strong probability."
The 2007 law prohibits businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and suspends or revokes business license penalties for violators. The business groups are seeking to overturn the law.
Wake also said one factor in his latest decision was that the depression of wages for legal workers from illegal immigrants is far greater than the minimal costs of employers complying with the law.
"An injunction would retreat from a status quo in which those with the least are getting a fairer chance at a small share of the prosperity of our nation," Wake wrote.
The law took effect Jan. 1 but prosecutors agreed to not file any enforcement cases before March 1 to allow time for the court challenge.
Wake said putting the law on hold indefinitely during the appeal to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would diminish the deterrent effect that employers sanctions have already achieved.
"Unauthorized alien workers are more likely to cease their perjured claims of authorization if they think their efforts will fail," Wake wrote. "Employers may now accord the verification process more of the seriousness that Congress originally intended, and even identity theft may decrease as E-Verify includes photo identification."
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Horace R. (Horace)
Feb 20, 2008 @ 8:15pmIt's so funny to see this article in light of the buffoon TC editor's predictions that the state would be the loser. It just shows you how lacking in intelligence these people are. Anymore predictions, TC masters of the universe? I also get a kick out of the idea that Judge Munley, the adjudicator in the Hazleton case will be humiliated when his ruling gets overturned and he gets rebuked by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and justly, the ACLU is done out of its $2 million largesse. -
Donald H. (#2161)
Feb 20, 2008 @ 5:52pmGo Judge Wake. HUAH! - Post a Comment »