6 - Camden News - Thursday, April 26, 2012

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PHOENIX (AP) — The United States could see an offi cial about-face in the coming months in how it confronts illegal immigra-tion if the Supreme Court follows through on its sug-gestion that it would let lo-cal police enforce the most controversial part of Arizo-na’s immigration law.

Over the last several years, states frustrated with America’s porous borders have rejected the long held notion that Washington is responsible for confronting illegal immigration and have passed a fl urry of laws to let local police confront illegal immigration. The Supreme Court is poised in the com-ing months to let the states know whether they haven’t crossed the line.

The justices strongly sug-gested Wednesday that they are ready to let Arizona en-force the most controversial part of its law, a requirement that police offi cers check the immigration status of peo-ple they suspect are in the country illegally. Such a rul-ing could codify the type of local enforcement that some local authorities in Arizona have carried out over the last six years and open the door to such enforcement in states with similar laws, such as Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and

Utah.“I think you’ll see more in-

volvement by local police in immigration enforcement, an involvement that hadn’t previously been seen,” Kev-in Johnson, law school dean at the University of Califor-nia-Davis and an expert in immigration law, said of the possibility of Arizona’s law being upheld.

The most controversial parts of the Arizona law were put on hold by a fed-eral judge shortly before they were to take effect in late July 2010, but the statute has encouraged other states to take up similar legislation and — combined with other state immigration laws and an ailing economy — played a part in 170,000 illegal im-migrants leaving Arizona since 2007.

“If you want to turn around this invasion, then (you should) do attrition through enforcement,” said former state Sen. Russell Pearce, ar-chitect of the 2010 law and the driving force behind other Arizona immigration laws, echoing the stated pur-pose of the 2010 state law.

Arizona has argued it pays a disproportionate price for illegal immigration because of its 370-mile border with Mexico and its role as the busiest illegal entry point into the country.

The Obama administra-tion, which challenged the law, said the law confl icts with a more nuanced fed-eral immigration policy that seeks to balance national security, law enforcement, foreign policy, human rights and the rights of law-abid-ing citizens and immigrants. Civil rights groups that back the administration say Ari-zona’s and the other states’ measures encourage racial profi ling and ethnic stereo-typing.

A decision in the case is expected in late June.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, whose offi ce has helped defend the law, pre-dicted the Supreme Court will uphold the law because many of its provisions mir-ror existing federal laws and that a year from now the state will see even less ille-gal immigration. “You won’t see anything that noticeable as far as law enforcement goes,” Horne said. “But you will see less people sneaking across the border.”

The Supreme Court’s com-ments on the most contro-versial requirement in Ar-izona’s law surprised state offi cials who had supported the law and had thus far lost all major court battles over the law. “I think we’ll win. It’s just how big we win,” Pearce said.

Arizona case could lead to major changes

Continued from Page 1Endeavor, a fi nancial dis-pute on the sale of timber on the land relating to the East Camden development, and shareholder meeting being held without prior notice to the plaintiffs.

Harbour said his develop-ment group is in the process of the residential area of the project and that there will be a “marketing event” in mid-May to “introduce the residential, housing devel-opment.”

The Eagle Endeavor residential development will consist of around 120 lots with housing being built there in the range of $195,000-$250,000, Harbour said.

He reported that he is in the process of fi nalizing the agreement for the 135 to 150-room hotel, which will include a restaurant and a 15,000- square-feet confer-ence center.

He stated that there are a number of contracts that are “on the table” and are being looked at by developers out-side of Arkansas.

“Most all of this is coming from outside the state. No one else is doing anything

with anybody locally. What-soever,” said Harbour. “No-body locally has come down and sat at the table with us and wanted to get involved. Yet, the entire county will benefi t from this. But, hon-estly, we have not had one encouraging word from (the city of) Camden, or from, basically, Ouachita County. But guess who’s going to benefi t from the taxes and such that will come from all this? That’s okay, though. Because this is something that is needed in Ouachita County.”

The developer said the retail portion of the project will begin after the housing and the hotel/conference center. The group handling that part of the project is from Jackson, Miss., he add-ed.

“We are still in talks with all of it because the need is there. This is still needed in this area.”

Other than revealing that the group helping with the development is called the Arms Group, Harbour told the Camden News that he could not yet disclose any other entities involved in the project.

“We have a general part-

EAGLE

Continued from Page 1stated that kids no longer have to go to a drug dealer to get pills and get high. All they have to do these days is go to the medicine cabinet in their own homes. There-fore, parents are especially

encouraged to keep eye on their prescription meds, and if they are no longer used, to turn them in on Take-Back Day.

In 2011, the Drug Take-Back Day in Ouachita Coun-ty resulted in more than 64

pounds of drugs being de-

posited at the sheriff ’s of-

fi ce.

The drugs were taken to a

facility in Little Rock where

they were incinerated.

DRUGS

Continued from Page 1

how long Murphy lived in El Dorado.

After he was taken into custody early Wednesday, Murphy made his fi rst ap-pearance in Union County District Court where he was not issued a bond, per a request from Louisiana offi cials, but instead signed a waiver of extradition to Louisiana.

Harrison said the arrest

was a rarity for the Marshals after such a long time span.

“It’s kind of the signature of the Marshals Service as it relates to tenacity and when we know someone is being looked for once we have the proprietary interest in it, so to speak, we’re going to do everything we can to hunt them down,” he said. “Obvi-ously, when we got involved in this it proved to be we were able to exhaust all our resources to fi nd him.”

FUGITIVE

ner and there’s about two or three different fi rms that we are discussing this develop-ment with on the housing and the apartments,” said Harbour. “But I’m not at lib-erty yet to use any names at this time.”

Harbour said it is taking months to get the develop-ment completed because he has had to convince develop-ers to invest in East Camden and Ouachita County.

“Most of the people we’ve talked to have never even heard of Camden, Arkansas,” he stated. “But Eagle Endeav-or has seen that there is tre-mendous interest now. They (investors) have discovered that Harmony Grove is a big asset. A lot of people love to live in that area.”

He said the East Camden mayor and others in that area have been very coop-erative about the project.

Immigrant rights advo-cates, who believed the courts would reject attempts by states to grab more law enforcement power, also were surprised and said a validation of the law by the Supreme Court would frighten immigrants fur-ther and cause Latinos who are here legally to be asked about their immigration sta-tus.

“The crisis here in Arizona would only multiply,” said Carlos Garcia, organizer of an immigration march that drew several hundred peo-ple in downtown Phoenix on Wednesday. Authorities said at least nine people were ar-rested for blocking a street and refusing to move. “It would mean that anyone, as they are leaving their home — whether they are going to work, to church, wherever they are going — could be asked for their documents.”

During arguments Wednes-

day over the Arizona law, liberal and conservative jus-tices reacted skeptically to the Obama administration’s argument that the state ex-ceeded its authority when it made the records check, and another provision allowing suspected illegal immigrants to be arrested without a war-rant, part of the Arizona law aimed at driving illegal im-migrants elsewhere.

It was unclear what the court would do with other aspects of the law that have been put on hold by lower federal courts. The other blocked provisions make it a state crime for immigrants not to have immigration reg-istration papers and for ille-gal immigrants to seek work or hold a job.

Peter Spiro, a Tempe Uni-versity law professor who specializes in immigration law, predicted the court would uphold the police check of immigration status

in Arizona’s law, but saidhe wouldn’t be surprised if the court threw out a provi-sion making it a crime to bewithout immigration docu-ments.

Such a ruling would let po-lice question people abouttheir immigration status ifthey have good reason to doso, but police would haveto call federal authorities to see if they would wantto pick up anyone found tobe in the country illegally.If federal agents decline, of-fi cers would have to releasethe people, unless they were suspected of committingcrimes, Spiro said.

If that happened, the lawwould be mostly symbolic,but would still carry somesignifi cance for immigrants,Spiro said.

“It would make it clearthat Arizona is unfriendlyto undocumented aliens,”Spiro said.

NEW YORK (AP) — A construction crane owner was acquitted of manslaugh-ter and all other charges Thursday in the May 2008 collapse of his 200-foot-tall rig that snapped apart and killed two workers, which fueled concerns about crane safety.

James Lomma sat expres-sionless, looking frozen, as a judge announced his verdict in the only criminal trial stemming from the accident on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Lomma chose not to have a jury in the two-month trial.

The victims’ relatives shook their heads as Lomma

and his two companies were acquitted.

The case marked Manhat-tan prosecutors’ second try at holding someone crimi-nally responsible for two deadly crane collapses that came within two months of each other in 2008. Together, the fallen cranes killed nine people and spurred new safety measures here and in some other cities — scru-tiny recently renewed after another Manhattan crane collapse killed a worker this month.

“Although we are disap-pointed with the judge’s verdict, each case we have brought in this area has put

increased scrutiny on the construction industry as a whole, and has had a cas-cading effect on safety prac-tices,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement.

“Construction companies must do everything in their power to protect the safety of workers and the thou-sands of New Yorkers who live near or walk by a con-struction site every day. The tragic deaths of two young men in this case showed the serious and fatal con-sequences that can result when profi t is put ahead of safety,” said Vance.

Crane owner cleared in deadly 2008 collapse in NYC