Judge Upholds Arizona 'Show Your Papers' Demand

A controversial law requiring Arizona police to demand immigration documents from suspected illegal aliens can go into effect, a US judge has ruled. But she blocked another measure making it a crime to harbor illegal immigrants. Challengers had argued that the so-called "show-your-papers" provision would lead to racial profiling. But District Judge Susan Bolton said she would not ignore the clear direction from the US Supreme Court that the provision "cannot be challenged further on its face before the law takes effect," reports CBS News. She added, however, that there's still a possibility that the measure may be successfully challenged once it's in practice.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer hailed the ruling. Arizona "will now have thousands of additional officers to collaborate with the federal government as state and local law enforcement do what they always have: enforce the law," she said in a statement. A spokeswoman for the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, one of the plaintiffs against the law, called Bolton's decision "unfortunate." "We plan to stop this if there's any way that we can," she told Reuters. "There is no question that once this goes into effect, countless people are going to be subject to illegal detentions because of the color of their skin." (More immigration stories.)