Appeals court dismisses Sheriff Joe Arpaio challenge of immigration order

A federal appeals court dismissed Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s challenge to President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration on Friday.

As many as 5 million immigrants could stay in the country under Obama’s order, and basically, Arpaio’s argument was that those people would be committing crimes in Maricopa County.

But now, the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia has upheld a lower-court ruling that Arpaio doesn’t have legal standing to sue, saying his claims are “unduly speculative”. An appeals court in New Orleans is grappling with an appeal in that case. But Obama isn’t off the hook yet.

But although Arpaio’s complaints appear to have been quelled for the moment, Obama will face a bigger challenge in Texas, where 26 states are also now challenging the president’s immigration policy.

In his decision, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen reasoned that the states had demonstrated they would be harmed, for instance, by having to shoulder the burden of additional driver’s license costs. Both programs allow millions of people here illegally both to remain and work.

Arpaio argued that illegal immigrants will be enticed to cross the border in the hope of benefiting from the new policies, but the judges rejected that “magnet theory”.

But the court found Arpaio did not have legal standing.

The three-judge panel, which included two Obama appointees and one judge appointed by President George W. Bush, said the suit failed “to allege an injury” because of the president’s deferred-deportation program.

The White House touted the ruling, praising the court for refusing Arpaio’s attempt to block “commonsense” immigration policy.

Larry Klayman, a lawyer for Arpaio, criticized the ruling and said he plans to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. “We will continue to work toward resolving the legal challenges so that the administration can move forward with implementing all of the president’s common sense immigration policies”.

Arpaio said, “we’re going to Supreme Court”.

A federal court held in May 2013 that Arpaio’s department used racial profiling and illegal detentions to target Latinos, violating the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with its traffic enforcement practices.