It looks like the DOJ is getting closer to going after Arizona and the immigration law. Michelle Malkin has details from the Washington Post.

The lawsuit, which three sources said could be filed as early as Tuesday, will invoke for its main argument the legal doctrine of “preemption,” which is based on the Constitution’s supremacy clause and says that federal law trumps state statutes. Justice Department officials believe that enforcing immigration laws is a federal responsibility, the sources said.

…

The preemption doctrine has been established in Supreme Court decisions, and some legal experts have said such a federal argument likely would persuade a judge to declare the law unconstitutional.

But lawyers who helped draft the Arizona legislation have expressed doubt that a preemption argument would prevail. The law, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R) in April, is scheduled to take effect later this month.

So check me on this.  The Arizona bill was passed to reinforce the actual execution of federal law, and now the feds are saying that they don’t like the Arizona law becuase it actually enforces federal law, and the feds should be passing new bills or otherwise executing federal law?

If you’ve read the Finding Ponies blog, you know we talk a lot about the concept of strategic intent (because we’re techie and business geeks at heart).  It’s essentially the strategy behind the action, and it mignt not even be what’s stated or even understood by the people doing it.  In short, you look at the actions and see where those are ultimately directed to get a real indication of true strategy.

So do that with the feds and the DOJ, and what do you get?  Here’s my take.  They have no intention of enforcing existing federal immigration statues, and they have no intention of letting anyone else do it for them.  Is this intentional?  Maybe.  I don’t actually do the psychology look-at-your-mother-and-why-she-spanked-you stuff.  But I think the actions are pretty clear.

When the bill passed, only then did the Obama administration commit extra troops, but only a press-worthy amount that would sit behind desks.  When it looked like Arizona would actually enforce the bill, they started talking about how unconstitutional the bill was while clearly not reading it.  Jan Brewer had a field day on that.

So now?  There’s nothing WRONG with the law, per se… it’s just that it’s OUR job to enforce the law.  And we’ll choose when to do that job.  That seems like pretty clear intent to me.  I hope Arizona does a spirited defense of the law (and they will) to show their own intent… to enforce the law and fix the problems on the border.

Updated: Ed Morrissey has his take on the move. He wonders why the feds are asking for state help on one side and dissing it on the other. I think it still falls into intent: they only want the states to play by the federal rules.

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