Obama administration sues Alabama over immigration law

The federal government is again taking a state to court, this time suing Alabama for a tough immigration law even further-reaching than Arizona's SB 1070 last year.

"Today's action makes clear that setting immigration policy and enforcing immigration laws is a national responsibility that cannot be addressed through a patchwork of state immigration laws," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. "The department is committed to evaluating each state immigration law and making decisions based on the facts and the law. To the extent we find state laws that interfere with the federal government's enforcement of immigration law, we are prepared to bring suit, as we did in Arizona."

The complaint says legal immigrants, visitors and U.S. citizens may face harassment under the law if police mistake them for illegal immigrants and they are unable to immediately prove their status--the same argument the federal government made and won in Arizona last year.

It also argues that undocumented students may be discouraged from enrolling in school under the law, which requires school officials to check the immigration status of each student. The Supreme Court has already ruled that it's illegal to discourage any child, regardless of immigration status, from attending school.

The law "is designed to affect virtually every aspect of an unauthorized immigrant's daily life, from employment to housing to transportation to entering into and enforcing contracts to going to school," the Justice Department said.

A coalition of civil rights group has already filed a class-action against the state, asking a judge to block the law from taking effect. The Mexican government praised the Justice Department for filing suit.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley campaigned on getting the toughest immigration law in the country passed. State representative Micky Hammon called the law "a jobs-creation bill for Americans," even as some school officials criticized the statute for requiring them to get involved in immigration enforcement.

South Carolina became the fifth state this year to pass a law cracking down on illegal immigration, following Utah, Indiana, Georgia, and Alabama. All of those statutes have faced court challenges, though Alabama is the first state this year to face a federal challenge over its immigration law.

Legal experts told the Washington Post last year when the Justice Department brought suit against Arizona that such federal challenges to state laws are "exceedingly" rare. Administration officials pointed out that the Bush administration sued Illinois in 2007 over a state law that would have prevented employers from checking immigration status of job applicants.