A Supreme Court ruling upholding the Arizona immigration law that authorizes police to check the immigration status of detained individuals could spur other state legislators to quickly move to adopt similar measures, state lawmakers say.

So far five states have enacted immigration measures like Arizona’s, but similar bills have been introduced in 36 states. State legislators and legal analyst told the AP that a Supreme Court ruling in Arizona’s favor would spur a new push to get those laws passed.

“There will be an enormous amount of energy spent in next few months examining the full range of possibilities,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform told the AP.

Lawmakers from about a dozen states told the AP that they stand at the ready to press forward should the Supreme Court rule that such measures are not preempted by the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2012 at 7:00 am and is filed under Immigration, Supreme Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.