MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's administration sought on Monday to block parts of South Carolina's new immigration law, arguing that the federal government had preeminent authority over immigration matters.

The move by the U.S. Department of Justice in South Carolina sought an injunction against enforcement of portions of the state law, which toughens measures against undocumented immigrants and is set to take effect on January 1.

Obama's administration has already moved to challenge strict new immigration legislation in Alabama. Judges have blocked parts of similar laws enacted in Georgia, Arizona, Utah and Indiana aimed at trying to deter illegal immigrants from coming to those states.

The South Carolina law, passed earlier this year by a Republican-led state legislature, requires police to check the immigration status of people they suspect of being in the country illegally after stopping them for another offense.

The law makes it a crime to knowingly transport or harbor an illegal immigrant and sets up a unit within the state police to deal with immigration issues and serve as a liaison between local authorities and federal officials.

In its filing to the Charleston Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, the Department of Justice said that under the U.S. Constitution, "the federal government has preeminent authority to regulate immigration matters and to conduct foreign relations".

"Although states may exercise their police power in a manner that has an incidental or indirect effect on aliens, a state may not establish its own immigration policy or enforce state laws in a manner that interferes with federal immigration laws," said the filing submitted by U.S. Assistant Attorney General Tony West.

There are an estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the country, including 30,000 to 75,000 in South Carolina, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Some conservatives complain the federal government has failed to sufficiently stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country, forcing states to take action. Opponents of South Carolina's law say it would invite racial profiling.

Earlier this month, a coalition of civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit to try to halt enforcement of the South Carolina law, calling it unconstitutional.

(Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

The Feds might have authority over it,but I can't see how that would prevent states from enforcing those Statutes!

i'm thinking the feds don't want it enforced... that seems to be obama's theme...

If the feds don't want the states enforcing immigration laws then states should stop enforcing drug laws and any other law that is set at the federal level! Worry about only enforcing state laws and provide zero law enforcement help to the FBI, DEA, Marshals and arrest on sight anyone from the ATF!

I think that if anyone took the trouble to check, more illegals have been deported by Obama's Dept of Justice in the three years he's been in office than for the entire 8 years under Bush/Cheney.

And _another_ Texas Governor of more recent vintage wearing the Conservative Uniform (or should I say 'flying the Conservative Jolly Rodger?:) has flip-flopped on his support of the Dream Act, giving the children of illegals money to go to college at a time when natural born citizens are finding it increasingly VERY difficult to get the same for their children.


-Kerry O.