Feds File New Suit Over AZ Immigration Law

The Obama Justice Department has filed another lawsuit against Arizona's immigration law enforcement policies Monday, arguing that local community colleges were acting illegally in requiring non-U.S. citizens to produce their green cards before they could be considered for employment.   The problem?  All that paperwork.

The Washington Post reports:

In Monday's lawsuit, Justice officials said the colleges discriminated against nearly 250 noncitizen job applicants by mandating that they fill out more documents than required by law to prove their eligibility to work. That violated the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, the department said.

The law's anti-discrimination provision "makes it unlawful to treat authorized workers differently during the hiring process based on their citizenship status," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for Justice's Civil Rights Division. He said the government "is acting now to remedy this pattern or practice of discrimination."

Of course this newest lawsuit comes less than two months after lodged its initial legal complaint against the state and Gov. Jan Brewer (R) over the state's strict immigration enforcement law and just days after it reported the law to the UN's Council on Human Rights.   Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department are also continuing to keep a close watch over Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio who is known for being a strong proponent of border law enforcement.