* Ruling seen slowing states mulling copycat laws

* Illegal immigrant day laborers tout for work

By Carolina Madrid and Tim Gaynor

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona brought in a weakened
anti-immigration law Thursday after a U.S. court blocked its
most intrusive provisions and analysts said the court ruling
would stall similar tough legislation action in other states.

Hispanic and labor activists, delighted by Wednesday's last
minute ruling, pushed ahead with rallies in central Phoenix and
scores of illegal day laborers touted for work openly in the
city in defiance of surviving clauses in the new law.

Tensions over the law inflamed a national debate over the
issue, which has festered for decades and promises to play into
the elections in November, when President Barack Obama's
Democrats are fighting to retain control of Congress.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was expected to file an appeal
to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco later
in the day to reinstate the provisions, heralding a long legal
fight that is expected to reach the Supreme Court.

Analysts said the ruling would "at least hit the pause
button" for as many as 20 other states around the country where
Republican lawmakers are considering copycat legislation
inspired by the Arizona law.

"If the Supreme Court upholds the injunction that will most
likely put a real damper on any potential legislation," said
Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University in Texas.

The Republican-controlled state legislature passed the law
three months ago to try to drive nearly half a million illegal
immigrants out of Arizona, and stem the flow of human and drug
smugglers over the border from Mexico

In a victory for Obama, who is trying to reassert federal
authority over the issue, a U.S. District Court judge on
Wednesday granted an injunction against the most controversial
elements, which had drawn wide popular support in this state
bordering Mexico.

The blocked provisions included one that required a police
officer to determine the immigration status of a person
detained or arrested if the officer believed they were not in
the country legally.

HAVE TO CARRY DOCUMENTS

Immigrants would also have been required to carry their
documents at all times and undocumented workers would have been
forbidden to solicit work in public.

Measures not subject to the stay, and which went into
effect on Thursday, included offenses making it illegal for
drivers to pick up day laborers from the street and to
transport or harbor an illegal immigrant.

The law is popular with a majority of Americans and 65
percent of Arizona voters, although opponents charge it is
unconstitutional and would lead to discrimination against
Latinos, and Latino-looking Americans.

Late on Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives
approved a $701 million package aimed at bolstering security
along the U.S. border with Mexico, funds Obama sought earlier
in the year as the fight in Arizona over illegal immigration
grew.

The money, which includes $208 million for 1,200 additional
border patrol agents deployed to the southwest border, must
still be approved by the Senate and it was not clear if that
would happen before the chamber's summer recess that begins
late next week.

About 100 activists marched in central Phoenix early on
Thursday and planned to push ahead with rallies outside a
sheriff's office and a jail in the city later in the day to
oppose the remaining measures in the law, known as SB 1070.

"MORE TOOLS FOR COPS"

"We welcome the fact that the judge blocked some of the
provisions in SB 1070 but ... we are continuing action to
overturn the rest of the law, " said Pablo Alvarado, executive
director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

"Today is going to be worse that yesterday because there
will be more laws on the books, more tools for cops," he said.

Scores of day laborers set out to seek work at informal day
labor sites in Phoenix, despite the new provision making it
illegal for drivers to stop for them.

"We're not criminals, we're not hurting anyone ... We wish
people would know that," said Franco Escamilla, an undocumented
laborer from Mexico said as he waited outside a Home Depot
store in Phoenix.

Thomas Henman of the U.S. Marshals Service said three
people were arrested after entering a cordoned off area of the
federal court house. Among them was Alfredo Gutierrez, a
prominent former state legislator and chairman of the boycott
committee of group Somos America.

Wednesday's court ruling left 15,000 state and local police
across Arizona weighing late changes to the law they had
trained to implement.

A sheriff known for his tough approach to illegal
immigrants in the Phoenix area, said he would push ahead with a
crime and immigration sweep as planned on Thursday.

"It's business as usual for this sheriff's office,"
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.
(Writing by Tim Gaynor; Additional reporting by David Schwartz
in Phoenix and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington; Editing by David
Storey)