Photo: Dan Goldblatt (WFIU News)
The AG's office will concentrate on fighting another portion of Judge Sarah Evans Barker's ruling.
State Attorney General Greg Zoeller announced Tuesday his office will not appeal the temporary suspension of portions of immigration legislation passed by the General Assembly.
Federal judge Sarah Evans Barker granted a preliminary injunction in late June after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging parts of an immigration bill passed during this year’s legislative session. The law would allow police to arrest people who have been issued a notice of action by federal immigration authorities.
In her ruling, Barker said that could mean the statute encompasses those who haven’t broken the law. The law also prohibits use of identification cards given out by foreign consulates to their citizens. Judge Barker ruled Indiana has no authority to ban the IDs.
The state will not pursue an appeal of the preliminary injunction, instead focusing on opposing the permanent injunction, the other part of the ACLU lawsuit.
Zoeller says the law is simply the state’s response to federal inaction on immigration reform.
“Hoosiers’ frustration with the federal government’s inability to enact and enforce immigration policies,” he said, “prompted the legislature to turn the wheels of state government to respond to this issue.”
The court has not yet set a date for the permanent injunction hearing.
