The problem is: There's too many people in Washington who honestly believe that the Federal government has, and is SUPPOSE to have, the greatest power in our country. Even the majority of citizens believe this to be true. Reason being, that all disputes get escalated through appeal to entities such as federal or the supreme court. Thus, many people believe that this means the federal government is the ultimate authority.
Unfortunately, many of these people have never read the constitution. In a recent ruling to Chicago and a couple of years ago with D.C. on individual's rights to own guns, they made it quite clear that the CITIZEN has the most rights; the states have the next level of rights; and the federal government follows. The federal government should only be involved with issues that cross state or national boundaries; e.g. transportation system, military, import/export trade, etc... And yes, the federal government should be involved with illegal immigration. But if a state feels that the federal government isn't addressing the situation properly or in a timely manner, the state has EVERY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to take matters into their own hands. The federal government works for the states, and the states work for the people. The constitution and bill of rights are very specific that it isn't RIGHTS that they discuss, but rather LIMITATIONS on the government so that the rights of the citizens aren't infringed. The ONLY legal issue that should be happening is the state of Arizona SUING the federal government for not doing their job. The federal government should not have any say in what Arizona does. Not unless what they are doing is unconstitutional and infringes on the rights of the citizens. And that can't be happening, because the entire concept of the Arizona proposal is towards "Illegal Immigrants", who by their very nature do not and should not be protected by any constitutional rights. They are still afforded "Human Rights", but that is different. The federal government needs to either show that they are actively addressing the issue; thus satisfying their responsibility; and allow Arizona to back off, or the federal government needs to stay out of it. They have been negligent in their responsibilities to the states.
Matters like these do not require constitutional law degrees to understand. Our founding fathers were pretty clear in their development of our country. You only need lawyers if you WANT to distort and change the meaning of the constitution. And if you can get a supreme court to basically MAKE LAW instead of interpreting, then you need lawyers. And that's exactly what has happened. Our congress allows the supreme court to change the meaning of the laws they've enacted. If the supreme court changes the meaning of a law, the congress is suppose to go back in and change the law so that it represents the meaning they had intended. Unfortunately, our government; on all political sides; has become corrupted because of power and money.