Lawmakers OK changes to immigration law
by Associated Press (April 29th, 2010 @ 8:03pm)

PHOENIX - Arizona lawmakers pushed to end their regular session Thursday as they passed last-minute changes to the recently approved sweeping law targeting illegal immigration.

Also Thursday, a final Senate vote sent Gov. Jan Brewer a bill reversing previously approved cuts in two health care programs.

The session began in January, with early months devoted to the state's budget crisis. More recently, approval of the immigration enforcement law has been in the spotlight.

A House-Senate conference committee on Thursday recommended changes signed into the law April 23 by Gov. Jan Brewer. The changes were added to a bill that until Thursday was largely limited to tweaking the law's lawsuit provisions.

The Republican-led House and Senate approved the changes on party-line votes of 33-22 and 16-11.

The law requires local and state law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're in the country illegally, and makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally. Agencies that don't comply can be sued.

One change would include strengthening restrictions against using race or ethnicity as the basis for questioning by police and inserts those same restrictions in other parts of the law.

Another change would specify that police contacts with people over possible violations of local civil ordinances can trigger questioning on immigration status.

The law's sponsor, Republican Sen. Russell Pearce, characterized the race and ethnicity changes as clarifications ``just to take away the silly arguments and the games, the dishonesty that's been played.''

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said allowing immigration-status contacts for civil violations such as weed-infested yards or too many occupants in a residence could spur complaints of racial profiling.

Pearce defended that provision, saying there shouldn't be a restraint on when police act on a reasonable suspicion that somebody is in the country illegally. ``It is a lawful contact,'' Pearce said.

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