Judge blocks measure banning noncitizens from airport security screener jobs.

Byline: Aaron Davis

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ A federal judge ruled Friday that the government cannot limit airport security screening work only to U.S. citizens, a decision that gives hope to hundreds of legal immigrants fired from checkpoint jobs across the country.

The decision does not overturn any of the dismissals, and it apparently won't delay plans to lay off more than 400 non-citizen screeners at San Francisco Airport on Tuesday.

But if the preliminary injunction issued Friday becomes permanent, it would allow those and other non-citizens to apply for jobs with the new Transportation Security Administration and a few private companies that provide security services at the nation's 429 commercial airports.

The new agency is set to announce Monday that it has finished hiring the more than 30,000 passenger screeners it needs for now. San Francisco hasn't completed the process because it is part of a pilot program that uses a private company to provide security.

"On principle it's a very important decision, but the practical effects of it are somewhat tempered because non-citizens have already been replaced," said Ben Wizner, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which sued in January on behalf of non-citizen screeners at San Francisco and Los Angeles airports.

The judge's decision _ which questioned the constitutionality of a federal law that prevents non-citizens from working in airport security when they're allowed to serve in sensitive positions in the military and elsewhere _ sparked confusion late Friday as government officials and the union representing screeners tried to determine whether it would prevent the San Francisco airport layoffs.