Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said he won’t fight to lift a temporary injunction against the state’s tough new immigration law.

Senate Enrolled Act 590 was to have gone in to affect July 1, but U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker granted the injunction on June 24.

Zoeller said his decision is based on “strategic reasons” but he will continue to defend the law in court.

“Hoosiers’ frustration with the federal government’s inability to enact and enforce immigration policies prompted the Legislature to turn the wheels of state government to respond to this issue,” Zoeller said in a written statement Tuesday. “I remain committed to defending legislative enactments against outside challenges.”

The law allows police to arrest legal immigrants but whose status is questionable. It also restricts the use of identification cards provided by foreign countries, such as the “matrícula consular” issued by the Mexican government. The card is accepted by many banks, libraries and other institutions and is used primarily by undocumented immigrants. Barker ruled the law’s provisions treads on the federal government’s power to regulate immigration, and violates the Constitution’s due process provision, as well as protections against search and seizure.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and the National Immigration Law Center challenged the law and are seeking to block it permanently on the grounds that it’s unconstitutional.

Ironically, Senate Enrolled Act 590 is considered a “watered-down” version of what some Indiana lawmakers originally wanted. Hearings on the law last spring at the Indiana State House in Indianapolis drew hundreds of supporters and protesters.

Source: wbez.org