Did we really need a lawyer to write a memo to tell us this?
So there’s this DOJ memo that might “complicate” that lawsuit AG Eric Holder wants to bring against Arizona because of their new “enforce the law because the Feds won’t” bill:
The document, written in 2002 by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, concluded that state police officers have “inherent power” to arrest undocumented immigrants for violating federal law.
Well, duh.
Okay, so in 2002, Bush was still president. But:
“The Justice Department’s official position as of now is that local law enforcement has the inherent authority to enforce federal immigration law,” said Robert Driscoll, a former Justice Department Civil Rights Division official in the George W. Bush administration who represents an Arizona sheriff known for aggressive immigration enforcement. “How can you blame someone for exercising authority that the department says they have?”
Which also means: not only did Eric Holder not read the AZ immigration bill; he didn’t read any DOJ policy memos, either.
More:
La Shawn Barber: if Holder tries to sue Arizona, he’ll have to sue California, too.
The obligatory gratuitous HotAir link.
Obama’s DOJ hasn’t pulled the memo in the 16 months Obama has been in office — suggesting either that the administration is in agreement with the policy position, or else that they read policy papers about as closely as they read their own legislation.
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