Officials want courts to hold off on immigration suit

• Reprints

Updated: March 18, 2012 8:09AM

State and local officials are asking a judge in U.S. District Court in Hammond to stay a lawsuit challenging Indiana’s new immigration law.

East Chicago-based Union Benefica Mexicana, a not-for-profit organization that works with immigrants, filed the lawsuit at the end of last year to bar two portions of the law. One portion would allow for civil actions against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and the other contested portion says people who want to take day labor jobs must fill out employment authorization forms and allows officers to arrest anyone they have probable cause to believe did not fill out the form.

A similar suit was filed in U.S. District Court in southern Indiana last summer, and a judge blocked two other parts of the same bill in response. That lawsuit is on hold pending the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court decision expected soon over similar immigration laws in Arizona.

The defendants in this case, who include Gov. Mitch Daniels, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter and Porter County Prosecutor Brian Gensel, filed a motion Tuesday requesting that this case also be stayed until the Supreme Court issues its ruling.

“The questions presented in this case regarding whether federal law preempts law enforcement officials, other state officials, or other individuals or entities within the state of Indiana from enforcing provisions related to immigration matters are substantially similar to the questions that will be resolved in Arizona v. United States,” the motion says.

The lawsuit had asked for a preliminary injunction of the law.