Villaseñor, Dupnik join flood filing anti-SB 1070 briefs

Posted Mar 30, 2012

Dylan Smith
TucsonSentinel.com

Will Seberger/TucsonSentinel.comVillaseñor at a press conference in early March.

Tucson-area law enforcement officials added to the pile of briefs filed with the Supreme Court this week opposing Arizona's SB 1070 illegal immigration law.

Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik joined ex-state Attorneys General Grant Woods and Terry Goddard, along with U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva and dozens of others in asking the court to strike down the law.

Among those filing briefs:

Sixteen current and former chief law enforcement officers, including former Phoenix chief Jack Harris, joined Tucson's top cops and the National Latino Peace Officers Association in a brief that blasted the law for creating "grave complications" for local law enforcers.
Woods, a Republican, and Goddard, a Democrat, joined 42 other former attorneys general, including a former Arizona top lawyer and governor, Bruce Babbitt.
A brief filed by 68 members of Congress included both sitting Arizona Democrats: Rep. Grijalva and Ed Pastor.
More than 40 cities and counties, including Tucson and Flagstaff, joined in filing a amicus curae brief asking the court to uphold the appeals court decision striking down the law.
Two former Immigration and Naturalization commissioners filed a brief opposing the law. Doris Meissner headed the agency under President Clinton, and served as acting commissioner under President Reagan. James Ziglar headed the INS under President George W. Bush.
The government of Mexico, joined by 16 other Latin American nations, submitted a friend of the court brief.
Eleven states, including California, New York and Illinois, filed a brief opposing the law.
More than a dozen brief were filed by organizations including the ACLU, the AFL-CIO, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Thursday, Gov. Jan Brewer blasted the brief filed by California and the other states, saying it "contains more misstatements and misrepresentations than I care to respond to."

"I look forward to SB 1070 being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in April so that states like mine may finally receive guidance on this critical issue," she said in a press release.