Two civil organizations announced on Saturday that they have filed a lawsuit against Arizona over its tough immigration law targeting illegal immigrants.

The complaint argues that Arizona's training materials recently developed and distributed to Arizona law enforcement agencies to implement the law "exacerbate the conflicts between the United States Constitution and federal laws on the one hand, and Arizona law on the other hand."

The Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) said they filed the lawsuit Friday in federal court in Phoenix as a class action.

Arizona's training materials violate federal law "by failing to recognize that numerous categories of immigrants who did not enter the United States lawfully nevertheless are eligible for legalization of status," and "by permitting law enforcement officers to rely upon vague and ill-defined factors" such as a person's dress, difficulty communicating in English and demeanor as providing justification for a detention, the complaint says.

The lawsuit argues that Arizona's law is "void and should be struck down under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution."

"The training materials issued a few days ago by Arizona are so vague and ill-defined that they will certainly lead to widespread racial profiling and discrimination," said Peter Schey, president of the CHRCL.

"The Arizona law and its training materials conflict with federal immigration law in numerous ways so that immigrants who are known to the federal authorities with petitions to legalize their status will nevertheless be subject to detention, arrest and prosecution in Arizona because they do not possess the kinds of specific documentary proof Arizona insists upon to establish lawful presence," he said.

"As the oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States, we are profoundly disturbed by the anti-immigrant law recently enacted in Arizona," said LULAC national president Rosa Rosales.

"We plan to vigorously fight that law, and Arizona's discriminatory training materials to implement the law, in the federal courts, in the Arizona legislature, and in the United States Congress.

"Arizona may be frustrated, as are we, with Congress' failure to seriously address comprehensive immigration reform. Nevertheless, the solution is not a patchwork of varying state laws, each trying to be more repressive than the next to force immigrants to go elsewhere."

Earlier, the U.S. Justice Department also filed a lawsuit against Arizona in an attempt to force the state to repeal the law.

Arizona Governor Jane Brewer signed the bill in April, drawing criticism from President Barack Obama who called the state law misguided.

Brewer said she signed the law in a reasonable reaction to federal inaction on immigration.

The measure, which takes effect in late July, authorizes local law enforcement agencies to investigate a person's immigration status whenever there is a reasonable suspicion that the individual is in the country illegally. However, it bars solely using race, color, or national origin to question suspected illegal immigrants.

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