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By Doug Cunningham

A federal judge Wednesday temporarily barred Arizona from enforcing parts of its controversial immigration law. Until courts can rule definitively on the issues police will be barred from checking the immigration status of people arrested for any crime and immigrants won’t have to carry their papers and produce them upon demand by police. But widespread prayer vigils and protests against the immigration law will go forward as planned Thursday. And Trina Zelle, Lead organizer for Arizona’s Interfaith Alliance for Worker Justice says the law is already being enforced.

[Zelle]: ““I have stories of people with whom I have direct knowledge who have been stopped and questioned, their citizenship challenged on the basis of the fact that they’re Hispanic. We have seen an increase in employers withholding wages.”

Reverend Peter Morales, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Arizona, says this immigration law is unjust and very troubling.

[Morales]: ““One of the things that I particularly find troubling is the clear racist overtones of legislation like SB 1070. And even more troubling the cultural fear and misinformation that is the ground out of which a law like this can spring.”

Kim Bobo, Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice, says the federal court injunction against portions of the Arizona immigration law is welcome, but doesn’t resolve the issue of justice for immigrant working families.

[Bobo]: ““There are still problems with this existing bill. And so there are prayer vigils and events going on al around the country and not a single one of them is being stopped or delayed because of this injunction.”