Arizona Endorses Immigration Curbs

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Randal C. Archibold, The New York Times

While pressure increases on the Obama administration for a long-anticipated and much-promised overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, Arizona is moving ahead with anti-illegal-immigrant legislation widely considered among the most stringent in the states. It would hand the police in the state broad power under state law to check the legal status of people they reasonably suspect are illegal immigrants.

The legislation was approved by Arizona’s House of Representatives on Tuesday and is heading back to the Senate, which is expected to pass it and send it to Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican facing an election challenge from conservatives. Although she has not stated her position, people on both sides of the bill expect her to sign it.

The police would be authorized to arrest immigrants unable to show documents allowing them to be in the country and the legislation would leave drivers open to sanctions in some cases for knowingly transporting an illegal immigrant, even a relative. It expressly forbids cities from adopting “sanctuary” policies that restrict the police and public workers from immigration enforcement, though it was a matter of debate if any cities had such policies.

The bill, hotly debated by police, business and faith groups, represents a step back from an earlier proposal that would have broadened the state’s trespassing law to encompass being in the state illegally.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/15immig.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Gosh, this reminds me of the proposed anti-gay bill in Uganda that allows imprisonment of anyone who knows but fails to report anyone involved in homosexual relationships/behavior. This time, anyone who knows and transports an illegal immigrant in Arizona might as well get in trouble. Once again, over-reaching right-wing law just like that stupid "fetal pain" abortion restriction bill over in Nebraska.