Suits likely over Arizona immigration law
PHOENIX, April 25 (UPI) -- Opponents of Arizona's strict new immigration law say they plan to challenge its constitutionality in court.
Critics say the law would result in racial profiling, give the state immigration enforcement responsibility the Constitution says should be left to the federal government alone and possibly violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday.
Proponents defend the legislation, signed Friday by Gov. Jan Brewer, as a legal response to the flood of illegal immigrants in a state where the federal government estimates 460,000 of them live.
The, which is to take effect 90 days after the legislative session ends, makes failure to have immigration documents a misdemeanor. Local law-enforcement officers with a "reasonable suspicion" a person is an undocumented immigrant will have the authority to ask about immigration status and arrest people who cannot immediately prove they are legally in the United States.
Annie Lai, an Arizona ACLU lawyer, said the law has "a number of constitutional flaws" that make it vulnerable to legal challenge.
"The immigration-enforcement provisions do not have adequate safeguards that United States citizens, legal residents, Native Americans and other minorities will not be detained and arrested," she said.
President Barack Obama Friday said he told administration officials to "closely monitor" the civil-rights implications of the Arizona law.
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, a Democrat, indicated he intends to sue to challenge the law, and the U.S. Justice Department could also stage a legal intervention, the newspaper said.
Internal Notes
Iran tests missiles in war games
TEHRAN, April 25 (UPI) -- Iran launched missiles in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz Sunday as part of its military drills, state television reported.
The launches were part of the last stage of war games, which began Thursday, Press TV said.
Coast-to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles were fired, Press TV said, while ground forces trained to fight enemies in Iraq.
Press TV said Iran's Revolutionary Guard undertook the exercises to "demonstrate the country's defense capabilities and its determination to maintain security in the region."
The maneuver, dubbed "Great Prophet 5," comes on the 31st anniversary of the revolutionary guard corps and amid increasing scrutiny of the republic's nuclear program.
Western nations considering sanctions against Iran express concern the country's nuclear-enrichment program could be used to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran says it's for peaceful purposes only.
Graham won't move ahead on climate bill
WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he won't move forward on a bipartisan climate bill he co-wrote because Democrats have made immigration a higher priority.
In a Saturday letter to the bill's other two co-authors, Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, Graham said he would stop participating in negotiations on the climate bill, The New York Times reported.
Graham complained debate on immigration reform would shift the focus away from national energy and global warming.
His withdrawal from negotiations came after months of work on the bill with Kerry and Lieberman, and the three had been scheduled to announce it Monday morning in Washington. The announcement has been postponed indefinitely.
Graham, who has worked with Democrats on immigration and was expected to offer GOP support on the issue, wrote Democrats appeared to be rushing immigration legislation in response to anti-immigrant sentiment, including the strict new Arizona law on illegal immigrants.
"Moving forward on immigration -- in this hurried, panicked manner -- is nothing more than a cynical political ploy," Graham wrote. "I know from my own personal experience the tremendous amounts of time, energy and effort that must be devoted to this issue to make even limited progress."
Kerry said in a statement he would be ready to resume work on the climate bill when Graham got back into the discussion but didn't predict when that would be.
"We will continue to work, and we will do everything necessary to be ready when the moment presents itself," Kerry said.
Nazi-era child abuser dies in prison
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 25 (UPI) -- A Nazi-era German soldier has died in prison in Chile, where he was serving a 20-year sentence for child abuse, officials said.
Paul Schaefer, who served as a Luftwaffe nurse during World War II, died of heart failure Saturday at 89, Chilean officials said. He had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually abusing 25 children , The New York Times reported Sunday.
Schaefer had led a religious, anti-Semitic cult in Chile, Colonia Dignitad, where members were largely cut off from contact with the outside world. The operation also served as a refuge for Nazis hiding from post-war prosecution, the Times said.
Schaefer was not hunted as a suspected Nazi but he had to leave Germany after he was accused of sexually abusing boys in an orphanage he operated. He founded Colonia Dignitad in 1961 in Chile and fled to Argentina in the 1990s when Chilean authorities investigating him for alleged sexual abuse.
He was found in Argentina in the 1990s and returned to Chile for prosecution.
Schaefer had been under investigation for the 1985 disappearance in Chile of Boris Weisfeiler, a U.S. citizen who disappeared during a hiking trip. Officially, Weisfeiler's disappearance is an unsolved case but, citing U.S. intelligence reports, the Times said Weisfeiler – a mathematics professor at Penn State – was probably abducted by Chilean security forces under former dictator Augusto Pinochet and then delivered to Colonia Dignitad, where he was tortured and executed.
