The U.S. attorney for Arizona doesn't like the state's new immigration law, and in fact, is part of the Department of Justice lawsuit challenging its legality. Dennis Burke says border enforcement is the better way to fight illegal immigration.

But while Burke's office won't play a role in the criminal prosecution of Senate Bill 1070 violators if the law goes into effect Thursday, he does expect his employees to be advocates for anyone who feels their rights were violated as part of its enforcement.

Supporters of the law say its wording prohibits racial profiling, while opponents say its ambiguity opens the door for the possibility that minorities will be targeted.

Arizona's immigration law makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It states that an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest shall, when practicable, ask about a person's legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

Burke plans to use his civil-rights division to prosecute complaints of racial profiling stemming from the new law.

Burke's office has no investigatory abilities, but he and his staff are encouraging anyone who believes their civil rights have been violated to contact the FBI at 602-279-5511. The FBI would investigate the allegations and then the U.S. Attorney's Office could file federal charges against any individual or law-enforcement agency that discriminates based on race, color, sex, disability, religion or national origin.

Burke also is taking on the law itself. He works for Attorney General Eric Holder and is part of the Department of Justice, which was one of seven groups to file lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of SB 1070. He was among the half-dozen federal attorneys at the table for last week's court hearing and the only one Judge Susan Bolton greeted personally - even before acknowledging the presence of Gov. Jan Brewer.

"I have the authority to bring any and all federal charges in the district of Arizona," Burke said. "My main task is to defend the federal government in court in Arizona."

The Department of Justice asked Bolton to prevent the law from going into effect Thursday. Bolton has not yet issued a ruling.

Burke calls the law "unconstitutional, unworkable, unfunded and confusing." He agrees that the federal government needs to do more to combat illegal immigration. But he said SB 1070 is the wrong way for Arizona to respond and instead touts his office's efforts.

He said there was a time when the office had to turn down cases that dealt with less than 500 pounds of marijuana or illegal immigrants without serious felony records trying to come back into the U.S. Not anymore, Burke said. He said he has added 11 prosecutors to the Tucson office in the past year to allow for more prosecution of border-enforcement and immigration cases.

He said his office has improved its relationship with Mexico, increasing the number of crime suspects extradited to the U.S., working more with Mexican officials on joint investigations and training Mexican prosecutors to better prosecute their own criminals. He said his office has also started paying more attention to the guns and money traveling from the U.S. to Mexico instead of just targeting drugs and people being trafficked in the opposite direction.

"We've been confiscating millions of dollars in ways we haven't done before," Burke said. "That, more than anything, takes out a drug cartel."