A federal judge today issued an injunction barring Arizona from enforcing key provisions of its controversial immigration law, prompting promises to appeal from supporters and tears of joy from opponents outside the state capitol.

The parts of the law that Judge Susan Bolton put a hold on included sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.

The judge also delayed enforcement of the law’s requirement that immigrants must carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.

Bolton ruled that those sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues.

“It’s nothing like the law they wanted,”"said Manuel Martinez, a Vietnam veteran who hugged other immigrant advocates moments after the judge’s decision made the news. “There is so little left.”

Supporters of the law, known as SB 1070, say the judge’s decision will backfire on organizations that opposed it.

“The other side is going to be claiming victory and doing cartwheels in the street, but the reality is that they have to come down from the euphoria and really look at the law,”" said Jesse Hernandez, chairman of the Arizona Latino Republican Association, a vocal supporter of the law.

Hernandez, a 49-year-old real estate consultant and first-generation American, said the judge’s discretion still gives law enforcement the discretion to help enforce immigration law, it just no longer mandates it. His Blackberry buzzed this afternoon as he made plans with his attorney to file a lawsuit to appeal Bolton’s decision.

“This is going to end up at the steps of Supreme Court,”" Hernandez said. “There’s no question about that.”This is not a defeat. If anything, I think it’s a victory in that the American public is going to wake up and look at what’s going on and say, ‘Enough is enough,’”"Hernandez said. “This is going to frustrate a lot of Americans.”"

For months, pundits and legal experts have speculated on the law’s legal vulnerabilities and the odds that U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton would enjoin at least portions of the law. Despite the judge’s decision today, the law already caused concrete changes in Arizona’s makeup, which has an estimated half-million illegal immigrants.

The law already had emptied out pockets of Phoenix, which was once one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities. The exodus also is widely attributed to the ailing economy and the state’s housing bubble.

The law put the state in the middle of a divisive debate, revealing the deep divide in much of America over states’’involvement in enforcing immigration law.

Rosalinda Macias, 46, a pastor at a downtown Phoenix church, said the law has caused four families from her congregation to move to other states, from California to Tennesse, in advance of the law. The true scope of the exodus from Arizona is difficult to judge, but anecdotes abound in this Valley of nearly 3 million.

“They don’t want Hispanic people here. It doesn’t matter what our status is,”"said Macias, a naturalized U.S. citizen.

The law nearly emptied out a small hamlet of 1950s-era apartments in south Scottsdale where Silvia Guerrero and her husband, who are both illegal immigrants, have lived for 10 years. They watched as their neighbors packed up and moved away to other states or headed back to Mexico. Now, she said, she can now count the families left in her corner of the complex on one hand.

“It’s a little lonely now,”"she said.

SB 1070 made Manuel Mendiola, an illegal immigrant from Morelos, Mexico, too afraid to drive and, he said, cost him a well-paying landscaping job. On Tuesday night he watched his 6-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, play outside a run-down apartment.

“It’s separating families. That’s the worst part,”"said Marta Cano, 40, whose husband was stopped by Scottsdale Police for crossing over a white center line 16 days ago, and was deported to Mexico.

But the news was likely to disappoint many Arizonans who supported the law.

Terri Greenhalgh, a 58-year-old school bus driver whose route includes her South Scottsdale neighborhood, which has a sizable Hispanic population, said families have been leaving in advance of the law. She estimated the number of students on her route has dropped about 5 percent.

“They’re kids I’ve had for a long time, and suddenly they’re telling me they’re going back to Mexico,”"she said.

Still, she was reluctantly embracing the law’s enactment.

“I feel something has to be done. I don’t even know how to put it. I feel bad for students who were born here, but their parents are illegal. But generally I do believe we have to do something.”"

“I don’t like the idea, but you have to start somewhere,”"said her husband, Joe Greenhalgh. The couple has lived in their South Scottsdale neighborhood since the mid-1990s.

Joe Greenhalgh said illegal immigrants are a drain on taxpayers.

“If we were in a great economy like we were four or five years ago, that’s no big deal,” he said. “We can absorb it. Now everybody is struggling.”

He said it’s “terrible” that the government has to send illegal immigrants back to their native country. “Most of them are hardworking people,” he said. “But they’re here illegally.”

susan.carroll@chron.com