Thread: CA: Bay Area activist working to put Arizona-style immigrati

Bay Area activist working to put Arizona-style immigration law on California ballot

By Matt O'Brien
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 11/23/2010 02:28:34 PM PST
Updated: 11/23/2010 02:54:55 PM PST


BELMONT -- A Republican activist from Belmont is raising signatures to place an Arizona-style immigration law on the California ballot in 2012.

The proposition would require all state and local police officers to investigate the immigration status of people they stop if they have reasonable suspicion the person is in the country illegally. It would make it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek work while concealing their immigration status. And it would make it a state crime for an employer to hire an undocumented immigrant, whether the hiring happens intentionally or negligently.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Tuesday that the proponent, Michael Erickson, could begin collecting signatures. He must collect the signatures of 433,971 voters by April 21 in order for the initiative to qualify for the 2012 ballot.

Erickson calls the measure the Support Federal Immigration Law Initiative. The proposition would also allow legal residents to sue any state official or agency if their policies restrict the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

"Since we're never going to get this passed through the Democrat-controlled Legislature, it's going to be we the people who are going to make it happen," Erickson told a Bay Area tea party rally recently, according to a video of the rally at the initiative's website.

Erickson said he took the text of Arizona's law, SB 1070, and applied it to California's penal code, and also strengthened the language to overcome likely constitutional challenges. The Department of Justice sued over Arizona's law this summer, causing a judge to strike down its most controversial provisions. The Arizona law is now being argued in a federal appeals court in San Francisco.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16693931

Thanks Jean. I just went to his website and volunteered to help get petitions signed.

California group pushes initiative modeled on Arizona's immigrant-crackdown
By Abby Sewell, Los Angeles Times

November 24, 2010

Secretary of state says the proponents can begin collecting signatures. The law would require state and local officers to check status of those they lawfully stop and 'reasonably' suspect of being illegal immigrants.

Proponents of a California initiative modeled after Arizona's controversial immigration law may begin gathering signatures to place the measure on the ballot in 2012, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Tuesday.

The measure would require state and local law enforcement officers to investigate the immigration status of anyone they lawfully stop and "reasonably" suspect may be in the country illegally. It would also make it a crime for illegal immigrants to seek work while concealing their legal status and for employers to "intentionally or negligently" hire them.

Initiative proponent Michael Erickson would need to collect signatures from 433,971 registered voters by April 21, 2011, to qualify it for the ballot. If it is validated, the measure could be placed before voters in February or June of 2012.

The Obama administration challenged Arizona's law in court, arguing that SB 1070 usurped the federal government's sole authority to regulate immigration. A federal judge blocked key portions of the law in July just before it was slated to take effect.

Both sides are awaiting a decision from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the lower court's ruling.

Erickson, chairman of the Belmont-based Support Federal Immigration Law Committee, said he had studied the federal judge's decision when crafting his initiative and is confident that it would pass any legal challenges.

Unlike the Arizona law, the California proposal specifies that law enforcement officers must verify immigration status "in a timely manner at the scene of the stop or detainment" and may only do so through information provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies.

Erickson said the proponents decided to introduce an initiative in California before the Arizona legal battle had run its course in part because they were concerned about the spillover effects of the Arizona law.

"Our concern is with the possibility, if not probability, of an increase in not only illegal immigration in California but with a drug infestation, in part because Arizona is cracking down in their state," he said.

Angelica Salas, executive director of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said she did not believe Californians would support the proposal. She pointed to several similar attempts in the last 10 years that failed to qualify for the ballot.

"What we saw on Nov. 2, those candidates who dabble with racism, xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments and policies, lose badly in statewide elections," Salas said.

Fiscal review of the proposed measure by the state's legislative analyst and finance director noted that it could lead to "potentially significant cost savings" in government services provided to illegal immigrants. But the analysis also pointed out that the measure could lead to tens of millions of dollars in increased costs to the criminal justice system to arrest, prosecute and detain migrants.

www.latimes.com

Go California!!!!!

The Mercury News article has been updated to the following.
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Bay Area activist working to put Arizona-style immigration law on California ballot

By Matt O'Brien
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 11/23/2010 02:28:34 PM PST
Updated: 11/23/2010 06:03:51 PM PST


BELMONT -- A Republican activist is raising signatures to place an Arizona-style immigration law on the California ballot in 2012.

The proposition would require all state and local police officers to investigate the immigration status of those they stop if they have reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally. It would make it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek work while concealing their immigration status. In addition, it would make it a state crime for an employer to hire an undocumented immigrant, whether the hiring happens intentionally or negligently.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Tuesday that the proponent, Michael Erickson, could begin collecting signatures. He must collect the signatures of 433,971 voters by April 21 in order for the initiative to qualify for the 2012 ballot.

Erickson, a Belmont resident, calls the measure the Support Federal Immigration Law Initiative. The proposition would outlaw sanctuary city policies and allow residents to sue any state official or agency for as much as $5,000 per day if their policies restrict the enforcement of federal immigration laws. It also would require all employers in the state to use E-Verify, which checks the eligibility of workers through a federal database.

"Since we're never going to get something like this passed through the Democrat-controlled Legislature, it's going to be we the people who are going to make it happen," he said at a Bay Area tea party rally recently, according to a video of the rally at the initiative's website.

Erickson said in an interview that he took the text of Arizona's law, SB 1070, and applied it to California's penal code, and also strengthened the language to overcome likely constitutional challenges. The Department of Justice sued over Arizona's law this summer, causing a judge to strike down its most controversial provisions. The Arizona law is now being argued in a federal appeals court in San Francisco.

"We wanted to write an initiative we feel would have a better chance of passing any legal challenges," Erickson said. "We're complying with federal law, with federal pre-emption."

The 37-year-old recently moved to San Mateo County but has been a political activist in the region for many years and served as the chairman of the Sonoma County Republican Party. He is writing a book about the tea party movement. As a student at Santa Clara University, he was a volunteer on the 1994 campaign to pass Proposition 187, another statewide measure that sought to crack down on illegal immigrants but became tangled in legal challenges

www.mercurynews.com

GO CALIFORNIA! GO! GO! GO! That would be so fantastic if this gets on the ballot and Caifornia's "we the people" pass it. LETS GO CALIFORNIA!

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-5867--0-0.html

Arizona-style immigration law pushed in California

Initiative drive targeted for 2012 ballot
By Michael Gardner
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 7:25 p.m.

An Arizona-style immigration law could be on the ballot in California.

The Secretary of State Tuesday cleared the way for a little-known tea party activist in the San Francisco Bay area to begin collecting the required 433,971 signatures of registered voters required to place the measure before voters.

Legal researcher Michael Erickson of Belmont faces an April 21 deadline to submit the signatures.

If it qualifies, the initiative could go before voters in 2012 or earlier if a special election is called.

The proposition would require authorities who stop people for an unrelated offense to check immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person may be in the country illegally. But it contains provisions not in the original Arizona law, such as requiring the immigration check to be done in a timely manner.

The initiative also would require employers to use a federal database to check on status before hiring.

Erickson said he was concerned by problems he associates with illegal immigration, from human smuggling to drug gang warfare. “The worst criminals will regard California as a safe haven if we don’t show we are just as serious as Arizona,â€

I have been searching the Internet trying to find Michael's web site so that I can volunteer to circulate the petition.

There are at least 6 family members that are registered voters that are already jumping at the chance to sign the petition.

This is the happiest news I've heard since the Democrats' implosion in the November election!

Welcome to ALIPAC OneDustyCowboy. If you clicked onto the highlighted http address at the end of Jeans post you would have gone to the actual article in the Mercury. His website is at the end of the article. I hope it is ok to post it here - if not one of the moderator's will let me know. Here it is http://www.supportimmigration.org/.