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Appeals Court Rejects Illegal Immigrants' Bid to Challenge Prop 200
By Melanie Hunter
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
August 11, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -- An appeals court has rejected a bid by illegal immigrants to overturn Arizona's Proposition 200, which requires the state to verify the immigration status of people applying for benefits and services they are not allowed to receive under federal law.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed their challenge on the grounds that the illegal immigrants had no legal standing.

"We are delighted the Ninth Circuit has rejected this naked attempt to place the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of the democratic will of U.S. citizens in Arizona," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in a press release.

"The question of legal standing has long been a barrier to American citizens seeking redress in the courts when their interests have been harmed by mass illegal immigration," Stein said.

"It is reassuring that the Ninth Circuit recognized illegal immigrants, as a class, should not have any more rights than citizens do, as a class. We believe even if the court had granted standing to the illegal aliens challenging Proposition 200, it would have been upheld on constitutional grounds," Stein added.

The voter-approved initiative also requires people registering to vote to prove they are U.S. citizens and present identification at the polls.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican government - which filed the suit - plan to take the case "to the Supreme Court and even the UN," warned Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation, who represented the voters' interests before the appeals court.

"In the past, MALDEF and other organizations have gotten a largely free ride in the courts for their illegal alien clients. With cooperative legal efforts like this between FAIR, Mountain States Legal Foundation, and the grassroots citizens groups, citizens are seeing the tide turn in the legal war against lawless mass immigration," said Mike Hethmon, FAIR staff counsel, in a statement.

"We worked closely with local groups in Arizona because we believe what they have done there can be a model for citizen action all across the country," said Stein.

"The Ninth Circuit's decision will undoubtedly be a tremendous boost to that effort as Americans use the political process to force government to control illegal immigration and to protect their interests and resources," Stein concluded.

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