Diaz: 'Show me your papers' still is the law, but now everyone is happy?

Immigrant rights groups all of a sudden are giving enormous credence to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s opinion about what police should and shouldn’t do when pulling over undocumented immigrants.

Perhaps the groups are just too tired to keep fighting, or they merely wanted to make sure their lawyers got paid. Or they realized this was the best they could get out of a long legal fight.

The groups announced they were effectively giving up challenging the “show me your papers” provision and instead are relying on the goodness of local cops to follow Brnovich’s recommendations.

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According to Brnovich's opinion, officers can’t stop people solely to check the immigration status and can’t detain them longer than necessary.

The advocacy groups – the ACLU, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Valle del Sol – will end their appeals against two provisions of Senate Bill 1070 in exchange for the opinion, which they say will be sent to law enforcement agencies across the state.

That hardly seems like a huge legal victory for the groups.

Guidelines offer clarity, but they're still guidelines

But given Arizona’s charged atmosphere of late on immigration, it does feel like movement toward compromise and reasoned enforcement policy.

Both sides get to claim a win.

Brnovich gets to proclaim keeping the “show me your papers" authority and the immigrant groups get  “constitutional standards for enforcement of key SB 1070 provisions.”

Politically, this settlement is important because it comes from a Republican who has – at least until now – merely continued to defend the state’s anti-immigrant crusades.

MY TURN:SB 1070 has been vindicated, believe it or not

“Arizona is finally making a public commitment to permanently uphold basic civil rights protections threatened by its misguided 2010 anti-immigrant law,” said Karen Tumlin, legal director at the National Immigration Law Center in a news release.

Brnovich’s opinion is non-binding but the ACLU argues it’s still important because it provides narrow guidelines on how Sections 2B and 2D of the immigration law can be enforced.

The recommended guidelines offer clarity. Let's hope local police officers follow them.

Elvia Díaz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1.