Friday - May 26, 2006

Politics In Arizona

Arizona is a beautiful state. I’m sure going to miss it after Mexico annexes it. The legislature just passed an immigration bill that the US Senate would do well to read and follow - but they won’t. Arizona legislators are simply responding to the majority of the state’s citizens. As you can read below, officials in the border counties are urging the governor to veto the bill. I wonder why. My guess is the local officials along the border are mostly Mexican immigrants themselves who are legal citizens but prefer to look the other way when illegals come across. I’d like to hear from someone down in Tombstone or Tucson on that.

Regardless, Governor Napolitano will most likely veto the bill and the legislators can go home and say “we tried”. Hogwash. They’re no better than the crooks in Washington who are playing the same game: pretend to be doing something while doing nothing. The longer this goes on the worse it gets, not just in Arizona but all across the country. Amnesty? No! Guest worker program? Maybe! Seal the border? Hell yes! Fine businesses who hire illegals? You bet! Vote out the jerks who are playing games with this issue? YES!

Arizona Legislature OKs Immigration Bill
_{May 26, 2006, 2:03 AM EDT}

PHOENIX (AP)—The Legislature approved a bill Thursday that would criminalize the presence of illegal immigrants in Arizona and provide $160 million to help authorities in the nation’s busiest illicit entry point with their immigration crackdown.

The legislation also would set fines for businesses that continue to employ illegal immigrants after receiving warnings, require local police agencies to train officers in enforcing immigration law and deny education benefits to immigrants.

The bill, which was approved 33-22 by the House and 16-9 by the Senate, now goes to Gov. Janet Napolitano. Spokeswoman Jeanine L’Ecuyer declined to say whether the governor would sign it, but lawmakers on both sides of the debate predicted a veto. Officials from Arizona’s four border counties have urged Napolitano to reject the bill.

The plan would resurrect a proposal to criminalize the presence of illegal immigrants by expanding the state’s trespassing law to let local authorities arrest those who sneak into the country. Napolitano vetoed that measure last month, siding with police agencies that wanted immigration arrests to remain the responsibility of the federal government and complained that the duty would be a drag on their budgets.

Among other things, the bill would provide $54 million for communities for arresting and detaining illegal immigrants and nearly $29 million for border efforts by state police. About $50 million, to be distributed over two years, would go toward radars to help spot illegal border-crossers. Authorities would get another $2 million to crack down on illegal hirings.

The bill would require businesses to fire employees whose Social Security numbers are invalid. Illegal immigrants frequently use forgeries to meet federal employment eligibility requirements. It would let state prosecutors seek civil penalties as high as $5,000 and the suspension or revocation of business licenses if an employer under investigation fails to stop employing illegal immigrants.

The bill would also require local police to get training in immigration law and sign agreements with the federal government to let local officers investigate and arrest illegal immigrants. Many police officials have resisted efforts to enforce immigration law, saying it would detract from their roles in investigating thefts, assaults and other crimes and would jeopardize the trust they have built in immigrant communities.

The bill also would prohibit illegal immigrants from attending adult education classes and receiving cheaper in-state tuition and financial assistance at the state’s public universities and community colleges.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/26/2006 at 06:50 AM   
Filed Under: • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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