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New AZ Immigrant Bill
Threatens Health Care, Education
By Valeria Fernández
New America
Media
Feb 23, 2011
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- A new set of
far-reaching anti-immigrant measures passed by an Arizona State
Appropriations Committee early this morning has human rights activists
and health care professionals contemplating civil disobedience.
The bills would deny birthright citizenship to the children of
undocumented immigrants; make it a crime to drive without a license,
punishable by 30 days in jail; ban undocumented students from accessing
higher education; require proof of legal status to attend K-12 schools;
and require hospitals to inquire about the immigration status of their
patients.
There are also provisions that would increase penalties for government
employees who fail to report undocumented immigrants to immigration
authorities if they apply for public benefits.
The bulk of these proposals are contained in one omnibus bill, SB 1611,
that Sen. Russell Pearce introduced at the last minute. Pearce, who is
the author of the anti-immigrant law SB 1070, reportedly planning to run
for Congress in 2012.
SB 1611, along with other anti-immigrant legislation, was passed early
this morning during a session that lasted more than 12 hours. The bills
still need to clear the Senate and the House of Representatives before
they reach the governor’s desk.
Human rights activists called the bills “worse than SB 1070.”
“It’s without a doubt miles beyond SB 1070 in terms of its potential to
role back the fundamental rights of citizens and non-citizens,” said
Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the Arizona chapter of
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
SB 1070, signed into law last year, is considered one of the toughest
anti-immigrant laws in the nation. It made it a state crime to be an
undocumented immigrant in Arizona, but a federal judge subsequently
enjoined portions of it.
Meetze said SB 1611 is more problematic because it would effectively
create the crime of driving as an undocumented immigrant. Currently,
Arizona doesn’t grant driver’s licenses to people who are in the country
illegally.
“This will allow a police officer to detain somebody if he or she
believes they are undocumented. Anyone (who) is perceived to be an
immigrant is going to be stopped and questioned,” she said.
Meetze said bill would also create a “massive government bureaucracy” by
requiring government employees and agencies to routinely check people’s
immigration status when they are going to the hospital, trying to enroll
in school, or applying for public benefits.
SB 1611 is more expansive than a law passed two years ago that
sanctioned state and local employees for not reporting undocumented
immigrants when applying for benefits. It also limits the types of
services an undocumented person can get.
Meetze said the bill is expected to face legal challenges, especially
for provisions that would keep undocumented children from going to
school. This runs up against the Supreme Court's 1982 decision in Plyler
v. Doe, which explicitly prohibited states from discriminating against
students based on their immigration status.
“It’s a police-state type of bill. It’s punishing good working people
that did a lot for the state,” asserted retired physician Dr. George
Pauk, the Arizona representative with the group Physicians for a
National Health Program, who testified during the hearing.
“The elephant in this room is the racism that is present among us,” Pauk
said.
Senate president Pearce drafted SB 1611 on Friday and introduced it on
the deadline to get a hearing, admitting there might be some errors on
the legislation that needed to be fixed.
“This bill simply tightens up the laws,” he said.
He argued that the legislation passed by the state has had an impact in
diminishing the population of undocumented immigrants and stopping what
he referred to as “an invasion” that he believes is costly for Arizona’s
tax payers.
“We have a war on our borders,” said Pearce, “and the federal
government’s response was to post signs 30 miles from Phoenix saying,
‘Americans stay out.’”
But Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema argued the legislation is a remix of
measures that have failed to pass in the state legislature over the last
six years, and that it would open the state to more lawsuits based on
their unconstitutionality.
During a debate that went on for hours, she dissected several
problematic aspects of SB 1611, from its impact on domestic violence
victims seeking shelter to the unfairness of denying education to
children who come across the border against their will.
“I don’t know how we can ensure our future when we are choosing as a
policy decision to deny people that are going to continue to live here
an education,” said Democratic Sen. David Schapira.
SB 1611 passed by a vote of 7 to 6. Opposition to it also came from some
Republicans.
Republican Sen. Rich Crandall, a supporter of SB 1070 and the employer
sanctions law against businesses that hire illegal labor, said this
legislation would hurt the economy and the state’s plan to bump up
tourism at a time when Arizona has lost millions due to an economy
boycott.
“In this bill, every single car rental company in Arizona now has to
check for citizenship before you rent a car,” he said.
Legislators debated past 2:00 in the morning Wednesday.
One of the final bills that was passed would require hospital personnel
“to confirm a person’s citizenship or legal status during the course of
admission or treatment for emergency or nonemergency care if the person
cannot provide valid health insurance information.”
Sen. Steve Smith, the bill’s main sponsor, said it is “unfortunate that
we have people that come to this country for their last refuge. Ladies
and gentleman, we can’t support the world. If we do it, there’s peril
for every one of us and our children.”
But health care workers from the Phoenix Urban Health Collective spoke
out against the bill, saying they wouldn’t comply with a law that would
essentially turn them into immigration agents.
The hearing was marked by a strong presence of immigrants’ rights groups
and immigrant families who filled an overflowing room to witness the
proceedings.
“These laws are going to scare people even more. They are going to keep
pregnant immigrant women from taking care of their pregnancies,” said
Pastor Magdalena Schwartz from the Disciples of the Kingdom Free
Methodist Church in Mesa, Ariz.
Schwartz said the bills are “murderous,” and are aimed at trying to
“exterminate our Hispanic community.”
Others say that whether or not the bills become law, they have succeeded
in changing the conversation around immigration in Arizona.
“Their strategy is to move the discussion towards the right,” said
Salvador Reza, an activist from the PUENTE movement. He said it was part
of a plan to “infect the rest of the country with this anti-immigrant
wave.”
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