Union wants law denying immigrants bail struck down

SAN FRANCISCO (AP):

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Tuesday urged a federal appeals court to strike down an Arizona law that denies bail to immigrants in the country illegally, a voter-approved law that Arizona's lawyers call necessary to prevent criminal suspects from fleeing the United States (US).

ACLU attorney Cecelia Wang asked a special 11-member panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to find the law unconstitutional, saying immigrants are being unfairly singled out as flight risks.

Contentious issue

The case marks the latest battle over Arizona's crackdowns on illegal immigration from the past decade. Arizona voters passed the law in 2006 to deny bail to people who are in the country illegally and charged with certain felonies, such as murder, sexual assault and even aggravated identity theft.

Wang argued that no empirical data exists that show immigrants are any more of a flight risk than others cut loose before their final court appearances.

The ACLU and other legal aid groups maintain that the Latino detainees are unfairly held while other nationalities are allowed to put up bond in exchange for their freedom before trial.

"It's unfair to subject a certain subsection of the population to rules that don't apply to everyone else," Wang said.