ACLU and Other Groups Challenge New Immigration Reform Law

The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights, labor and faith-based groups announced Thursday that had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia citing that the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011, a result of House Bill 87, is unconstitutional.

Two days earlier Azadeh Shahshahani, Immigrants' Rights Project Director of the ACLU of Georgia, said the ACLU was “seriously considering” taking legal action regarding the law.

Richard Pellegrino, the director for Cobb Immigrant Alliance and an Austell resident, has applied to be a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Other organizations that filed the lawsuit include the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Service Employees International Union, the Southern Regional Joint Board of Workers United, Alterna, Coalition of Latino Leaders, Task Force for the Homeless, DreamActivist.org, Instituto de Mexico, Coalition for the People’s Agenda and the Asian American Legal Advocacy Center and individually named plaintiffs who would be subject to harassment or arrest under the law.

“The law is unconstitutional,” said Shahshahani. “The law interferes with federal enforcement and encourages racial profiling.”

Shahshahani said it could also lead to violations of the Fourth Amendment, which which guards against unreasonable search and seizure.

“This is not a police state,” Shahshahani told South Cobb Patch. “There’s no anti-racial profiling law on the books in Georgia which causes concern that it could lead to additional abuse of power.”

According to a spokeswoman for Gov. Nathan Deal, Deal expects the court to rule in Georgia’s favor.