High Court Could Look At State Immigration Laws

The Obama administration is waging a furious legal fight against a patchwork of state laws targeting illegal immigrants. The Supreme Court has its first chance Monday to jump into the fray.

Arizona is asking the justices to allow the state to begin enforcing measures that have been blocked by lower courts at the administration's request. Among those provisions is one that requires police, while enforcing other laws, to question a person's immigration status if officers suspect he is in the country illegally.

Similar laws in Alabama, South Carolina and Utah also are facing Obama administration lawsuits.

The Justice Department says regulating immigration is the job of the federal government, not states.

Arizona counters that the federal government isn't doing enough to address illegal immigration and border states are suffering disproportionately.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)