Thread: Lawmaker has new strategies going after illegal immigrants

Arizona Star

Published: 12.29.2007

Lawmaker has new strategies going after illegal immigrantsBy Howard Fischer

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVIC

PHOENIX — The architect of Arizona’s new employer sanctions law ,which takes effect Tuesday, is crafting a series of new measures aimed at those who entered the country illegally.

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, told Capitol Media Services he is introducing measures this legislative session to:

— Expand the state crime of trespass to cover anyone in this country without authorization;

— Require proof of legal presence in this country to register a vehicle or get a title;

— Deny workers' compensation benefits to undocumented workers injured on the job;

— Bar local communities from having policies which prohibit police officers from checking the immigration status of those they encounter.
Pearce also has some "cleanup'' language for the sanctions bill. He said the current wording might allow employers who pay workers cash "under the table'' to escape the potential loss of license that applies under the new law to anyone else who knowingly hires an undocumented worker.
But the most controversial — and legally questionable — part of Pearce's package would deny regular birth certificates to babies born in Arizona unless at least one parent proves citizenship.

That, he said, would deny automatic citizenship to the children. More to the point from Pearce's perspective, it would deny them public benefits now reserved for legal U.S. residents.

Pearce acknowledged courts have ruled the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed in the wake of the Civil War to provide equal protection under the law, guarantees citizenship to anyone born in this country.

But he said extending that to those born of parents not here legally is based on a misreading of the amendment. He notes it says citizenship requires not just birth in the U.S. but also that the person is "subject to the jurisdiction'' of this country, something he said does not apply to those here illegally.

See Sunday's Arizona Daily Star for more on this story.

I'm sorry, I forgot to post link:

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/

All our Reps need to take lessons from Pearce or maybe we could clone him.

Expand the state crime of trespass to cover anyone in this country without authorization.

Brilliant!

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
Franklin D. Roosevelt