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PHOENIX — State lawmakers are setting the stage for yet another battle at the ballot over border security and illegal immigration.
On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee approved a measure to ask voters to approve a law making it a state crime for someone who entered this country illegally to be anywhere in Arizona.
That would include not just public places but even private ones. HCR 2022, which now goes to the full House, would make a first offense punishable by up to six months in jail.
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But repeat offenders could find themselves facing 2 1/2 years in state prison. And those arrested who also had illegal drugs or dangerous weapons would be subject to five years behind bars.
A different panel decided earlier in the week to seek voter approval to spend $25 million to buy ground radar and other devices designed to spot people coming across the border illegally.
And another proposed ballot measure awaiting a hearing would require local police departments to cooperate with federal agencies in enforcing immigration law.
But that may not be the end of it: Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said he also may try to get voters to approve tough penalties against employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers.
Pearce has a bill to do that statutorily. But aside from fearing a veto by Gov. Janet Napolitano, who rejected a similar measure last year, Pearce said he believes some Republican colleagues may dilute the proposal amid intense lobbying by business interests.
His alternative would bypass the Legislature entirely and instead start a petition drive to put the issue on the ballot in the form he wants.
All this could mean the third election in a row where voters are asked to approve changes in law billed by sponsors as attacking illegal immigration. All four measures on the 2006 ballot were approved, as was one two years earlier.
The latest measure on trespass is virtually identical to a provision Napolitano vetoed last year.
Pearce said he’s not trying to turn police officers and sheriff’s deputies into full-time immigration enforcers. In fact, HCR 2022 is worded so a person could be questioned about legal presence in this country only if first stopped for some other reason.
And Pearce said police remain free to simply hold the person until federal agents arrive.
This, he said, would let them instead bring state charges to deter repeat offenders.
Pearce said there are too many situations where people turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement are back in the country almost immediately.
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said that is a problem not just in Arizona but all along the border.
Dever said Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who chairs the immigration subcommittee of the National Sheriffs’ Association, told him about how his own deputies check the legal status of people serving time in jail on other charges and make sure that when they are released they are turned over to federal agents.
“He said, ‘We’re doing that. But we’re actually getting people back in our jails — not just back in our community — four or five days after they’ve been deported,” Dever said.
Dever said, though, a new law will do him little good if the state does not also provide counties with the funds to incarcerate those they arrest.
Pearce acknowledged his measure contains no cash, saying that can’t be something sent to the ballot. But Pearce said another of his measures making its way through the Legislature provides $25 million in grants that can be sought by border law enforcement agencies.
nicole ray wrote on Jun 21, 2009 3:35 PM: