Published: 08.16.2007
State migrant laws here to stay?
The Associated Press

The leader of Arizona's movement to get state authorities to confront illegal immigration said Wednesday that the state should continue its border efforts even if Congress passes an overhaul of the country's immigration policies.
Republican state Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, author of several Arizona immigration laws, said the state shouldn't view its border efforts as a stopgap effort to ease immigration woes while Washington considers immigration changes.
He said no limits should be put on state and local authorities looking to minimize the impact of illegal immigration.
"There shouldn't be any bounds," Pearce said in an interview with The Associated Press, citing only one federal law where he said the state's ability to confront immigration was limited.
Pearce wrote a new Arizona law that prohibits businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and proposed three of the four immigration laws approved by voters last year.
He helped lead a successful campaign in 2004 to get voters to deny certain government benefits to people in the country illegally.
Arizona, where more than 500,000 illegal immigrants are believed to live, is the busiest illegal entry corridor into the country.
Frustrations over illegal immigration prompted the Legislature to pass several immigration laws in recent years.
Critics of Pearce's approach said regulating immigration is the province of the federal government, pointing out that a federal court recently threw out a city law in Pennsylvania that sought to punish those who hire or rent to illegal immigrants.
"I disagree that (the state) should be involved in immigration, because immigration requires a comprehensive approach, not a piecemeal approach," said Democratic state Rep. Ben Miranda of Phoenix.
Pearce called the ruling in the Pennsylvania case the work of an "activist" federal judge and said he was confident it would be overturned on appeal.
Pearce said states have the legal authority to crack down on illegal immigration and the responsibility to try to reduce the hidden costs of illicit border crossings.
"All federal law is in the purview of states," Pearce said. "Just like bank robbery, we don't sit on the curb and wait for the feds to get there when we have Bank of America or First National robbed. We go in and investigate."
The price tag for the state to combat illegal immigration would be much smaller than the taxpayer costs for health care and education for illegal immigrants and their families, Pearce said.
Lowering the costs wouldn't require state authorities to conduct roundups of illegal immigrants.
The costs could be reduced by denying government benefits to illegal immigrants and enforcing existing immigration laws, Pearce said.
"They will leave on their own," Pearce said. "Most of them will self deport."
State and local immigration efforts should continue because if Congress grants probationary legal status to illegal immigrants, as it has considered this and last year, a new wave of illegal immigrants would be expected, Pearce said.
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