A report in The Daily Telegraph notes that the US Justice Department is to sue the state of Arizona over its controversial new law targeting illegal immigrants weeks before it comes into effect.

The lawsuit will argue that the new law, which requires state and local police to question and possibly arrest illegal immigrants during the enforcement of other laws such as traffic stops, violates the Constitution and usurps federal authority. The law, which President Barack Obama called 'misguided', requires officers, while enforcing other laws, to question a person's immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion that they are in the country illegally. It also makes it a state crime for legal immigrants to not carry their immigration documents. The federal government will likely seek an injunction to delay the 29 July implementation of the law until the case is resolved. The report states that Arizona's senators John McCain and Jon Kyl criticised the planned lawsuit, arguing that it was 'far too premature' for the US Government to sue the state over the law 'since it has not yet been enforced'.
Full report in The Daily Telegraph