Bill would support Ariz. law

Measure would back immigration stance

By Matthew Spolar / Monitor staff
January 14, 2011 Updated 15 minutes

The House Committee on Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs heard a chorus of opposition yesterday to a proposed resolution lending support to a recently enacted Arizona immigration law that has been challenged by the federal government.

The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Marcus, a Republican from Peterborough, says the state of New Hampshire "fully supports the state of Arizona's immigration law." In April, the Arizona legislature passed a law requiring the police, "when practical," to determine the immigration status of people they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. Under the law, authorities would also be allowed to charge immigrants with a state crime for not carrying immigration documents.

Until some of the more controversial parts of the law have been determined to be constitutional, they have been blocked from taking effect by a federal court judge in response to a legal challenge by the Obama administration.

Ana Herrero of Webster, who came to the United States from Panama when she was 6, said she grew up thinking of herself as American. She served in the U.S. Navy for 22 years, but she said the Arizona law would likely target people like her.

"I'm sure that some of you, if not all of you, assumed when you looked at me and when you heard my name, that I would be addressing you in broken English and/or with a thick, hard-to-understand accent," she said.

Marcus's resolution indicates the measure is necessary because "the people of New Hampshire have the right of security including personal safety and job protection."

Eva Castillo of Manchester said the resolution, which also urges the Legislature to pursue its own law to "protect its citizens from illegal immigrants," would divert resources and create fear in her community.

"This law won't fix the challenges that we face in our state right now," she said. "It won't fix the budget or create new jobs."

Arnie Alpert, New Hampshire coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, spoke out against the resolution on technical grounds, calling it a "textbook example of what it means to be inexpedient to legislate."

He said the resolution's assumption that the Legislature has an obligation to ensure its citizens' job security is "patently false" and noted that the resolution does not say which Arizona immigration law it is supporting.

Elsewhere, Judy Elliott, an English as a Second Language teacher and member of the New Hampshire Alliance of Immigrants and Refugees said the Arizona law would lead to racial profiling.

Cathy Chesley, immigration director for New Hampshire Catholic Charities, said the Catholic Church and other Christian groups are "fundamentally opposed" to laws like the Arizona law and the proposed House resolution.

"We are opposed because the world is a family of human beings," she said.

Committee Chairman Al Baldasaro said it's his committee's job to hear national issues that are important to state legislators.

"We want to make sure that we're tightening our belt," Baldasaro said "That's of interest to us - what's going on with the murders and everything out there on the borders (doesn't) happen here."

The committee is scheduled to vote Thursday at 9:30 a.m. on whether to recommend the resolution to the full House.

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