...to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States.’
That is the line I am referring to. Such an approach is forbidden by the Arizona law. In order to "interrogate" a person in Arizona, that person must have committed a possible underlying offence first.
The federal law is much more broad than the Arizona law, and would have justified Obama's assertion that a man going out for ice cream with his child could be stopped and asked for papers. The federal law would allow that. Arizona's law would not.
Also the critics of the law never mention that even in the worst case scenario, if a family out for ice cream somehow found themselves in an encounter with the law and they were asked about their immigration status, any legitimate family would have no problems at all...even if they are not carrying their “papers”. No one is going to handcuff and drag someone away if they don’t have their “papers”. If they can’t come up with any proof of legal residency then their names might be referred to ICE for further investigation...which would be ignored. Enjoy your ice cream.