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  1. #1
    Senior Member
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    AR: Budget bills for state agencies advance

    Only illegal immigration portion of article posted.

    http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/186056/

    Budget bills for state agencies advance

    BY DANIEL NASAW AND MICHAEL R. WICKLINE

    Posted on Saturday, March 31, 2007

    Email this story | Printer-friendly version

    The General Assembly on Friday advanced bills to fund state government agencies’ biennial budgets, bringing the legislative session one step nearer its scheduled ending next week.

    ILLEGAL ALIENS In other actions Friday, the issue of illegal aliens surfaced once again in the House, when the chamber passed a bill that would punish a person for knowingly harboring an illegal alien. HB 2779 by Rep. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, received the endorsement of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

    It passed Friday after a testy debate in which bill supporter Rep. Billy Gaskill, D-Paragould, likened Rep. Will Bond, a Jacksonville Democrat, to the director of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

    “I swear, if this boy had a skirt on I’d have called him Rita Sklar,” Gaskill said in comparing Bond to the ACLU director.

    Bond had sought to rally opposition to the bill.

    “Did I hear it right, that you’re term-limited out ?” Gaskill said. “Well there’s a bright spot now.”

    At that, members gasped, and House Speaker Benny Petrus banged his gavel.

    The bill would make it a crime to commit “an overt act designed to conceal, harbor, or shelter from detection another person” if it were known that person was in the United States illegally. The bill would make that a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $ 1, 000 fine.

    Bond, a lawyer, had said the legislation would burden prosecutors and district courts, who would have to rule on questions of immigration law. He also questioned how a prosecutor could prove someone is in the country illegally, and warned the bill would lead to false accusations against landlords by vindictive neighbors.

    Gaskill later apologized on the House floor for his remarks, “if I went over the board a little bit.”

    “In the heat of the battle,” he said, “we get carried away sometimes.”

    After members debated the bill for some time, Rep. David Johnson, D-Little Rock, moved to send it back to the Judiciary Committee. He proposed the committee could amend the bill to require a person submitting an affidavit accusing someone of violating the law to provide proof the person being sheltered is illegal. The motion failed, and the chamber then voted 63-25 to approve the bill. In an interview after the bill’s passage, Woods said the rhetoric got out of hand because lawmakers are running out of energy. “You’re just at the end of the session, you’ve been down here for 90-plus days away from your family and your friends, and you’re tired,” Woods said.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Beckyal's Avatar
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    Anyone who gives any type of support to an illegal is a criminal by federal law. It is a shame that states and cities must pass the same law to be able to enforce it.

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