AZ - GOP blasts league of cities for suit vs. immigrant law
Posted on Saturday, November 28 @ 02:05:21 EST
Topic: Republican GOP Republicans immigration
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 PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer and top Republican leaders lashed out Tuesday at the League of Arizona Cities and Towns for its lawsuit challenging a new law designed to crack down on illegal immigrants getting public benefits.
"At a time when Arizona is suffering from budget deficits of unprecedented proportions and the state is struggling to meet the basic needs of its citizens, it is outrageous and shocking that the League of Cities and Towns would challenge legislation designed to protect the very entities that it was intended for," the governor said.
Subjects: Illegal Immigration, Arizona GOP leaders, League of Arizona Cities and Towns, Arizona taxpayers, lawsuit
November 25, 2009
Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
azstarnet.com
Brewer said Arizona voters have shown several times, starting with the 2004 election, that they do not want taxpayer money going to help those in the country illegally. She said changes approved by lawmakers in an August special session will plug holes in that law.
And Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who authored the bill, said the cities should be embarrassed to "side with lawbreakers over law keepers."
But Ken Strobeck, executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, said Brewer is misstating his organization's objections in its lawsuit.
"The law is already clear in Arizona that cities and towns cannot, and do not want to, provide public benefits, public services to people who are in the country illegally," he said.
What concerns league members, he said, are new provisions that subject public employees to up to four months in jail for failing to report illegal immigrants. It also allows any Arizona resident who believes public benefits are being provided to illegal immigrants to sue.
"We don't want to have a flood of new lawsuits over something that we believe was improperly enacted," he said.
Attorneys for the cities say the law is flawed because the language about illegal immigration was not enacted in a separate bill of its own, but included in a larger measure dealing with the state budget. That, the lawsuit claims, makes the maneuver unconstitutional.
House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, said that requiring cities to do more to crack down on services to illegal immigrants is related to the budget.
"A budget just isn't about spreadsheets or numbers in a column," he said.
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