AZ Policy Wonk

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he is still planning a sweep July 29 despite Judge Susan Bolton’s decision to halt the most significant parts of S1070.

Arpaio said he’s still going to enforce Arizona’s human smuggling laws and employer sanctions laws as he’s done the last three years. The only difference is how suspected illegal immigrants who haven’t broken a state law will be treated.

Had the key portions of S1070 stood, those people would have been booked into jail, Arpaio said. Now, they will be turned over to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which Arpaio said his deputies have always done.

“This is not going to interfere with how we operate,” Arpaio said. 

Arpaio said he wasn’t disappointed with Bolton’s decision because it will be appealed. He thinks the appeal will be successful. 

“I don’t think the activists should be celebrating in the streets yet,” Arpaio said.

Sen. Russell Pearce, the bill’s sponsor, held an impromptu press conference in the hallway of the Senate building after refusing to take questions about S1070 during an event to call attention to a new state law that will allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

Pearce said the immigration law still allows police to ask about residency status, but instead of charging under the state law, police will have to turn suspects over to ICE.

Pearce said it was encouraging that Bolton left in the provision that prohibits local governments from limiting or restricting the enforcement of federal immigration laws. He accused Mesa, Chandler and Phoenix of being among cities in Arizona with sanctuary policies.

“We will sue them,” he said.

Pearce also believes the state will win the legal battle if it reaches the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We wrote this for this battle,” Pearce said.

Rep. Doug Quelland has ended his appeal of the Clean Elections Commission’s decision to remove him from office.

Quelland’s attorney, Tim Casey, informed the Arizona Court of Appeals that the Phoenix Republican would not follow through with his intent to appeal a Maricopa County Superior Court judge’s order that backed the commission’s earlier decision. 

“I’m glad that the matter is complete,” Clean Elections Director Todd Lang said after he received Casey’s motion.

Quelland’s troubles began a few weeks after he prevailed in the 2008 elections, when Carol Vandercook, a Democrat who lives in Quelland’s district, filed a complaint with the help of attorney Jim Barton.

Vandercook’s complaint included a copy of a $15,000 political consulting contract signed by Quelland and Larry Davis, owner of Intermedia Public Relations. The contract put Quelland well above expenditure limits for publicly funded candidates.

With his appeals process over, Quelland became the second lawmaker in Arizona to be removed from office for public campaign finance violations. The first was David Burnell Smith, who was ordered from office in January 2006 by the Arizona Supreme Court for violating his 2004 primary election spending limits.

The delay in appointing a replacement for Quelland’s vacant Legislative District 10 House seat may be over. Legislative sources say the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is planning to meet on the matter early next week.

Cari Gerchick, a county spokeswoman, said the Board is eyeing Aug. 2 for a special meeting to consider Quelland’s replacement for the rest of the year.

I’m going to make this quick and dirty because I’m certain most of the Arizona Capitol Times’ readers are registered voters, but if you’re not, you will have to do so before midnight on July 26 in order to vote in the Aug. 24 primary election.

And if you are tired of lines at your neighborhood Motor Vehicle Department office (or if it’s closed due to budget cuts), you’ll have one last chance to register from 4:30 p.m. until midnight in front of the Executive Tower (July 26 is Monday, by the way).

Although, if you want to avoid a nighttime trip to one of the seedier parts of Phoenix, you can always register at servicearizona.com, which has become the favorite place to register for many Arizona voters.

About three-fourths of the voter registrations in Arizona are going through the online portal, said Matt Benson, communications director for the Secretary of State’s Office.

In the week prior to the registration deadline for the 2008 general election, servicearizona.com was responsible for nearly 100,000 voter registrations. The biggest single-day tally was 38,872 on Oct. 6, 2008.

Earlier this year, the site collected another 8,320 registrations just before the deadline to register for the sales tax special election.

The best part about it, nobody had to wait in line.

Thanks to Benson, here’s a list of the biggest voter registration days so far (notice that most of the dates fall just before a deadline):

The Arizona Capitol Times has won seven awards in the National Newspaper Association’s 2010 Better Newspaper Contest and Better Newspaper Advertising Contest, including three first-place awards.

The Arizona Capitol Times won:

First place for Best Feature Series, Luige del Puerto, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 4,500;
First place for Best Business Feature Story, Salvador Rodriguez, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 8,000;
First place for Best Environmental Story, Jim Small, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 6,000;
Third place for Excellence in Typography, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 6,000;
Third place for Best Investigative or In-Depth Story or Series, Jim Small, Jeremy Duda, Luige del Puerto, Jeremy Duda and Anjanette Riley, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 3,000;
Honorable Mention for Best Use of Photographs, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 6,000;
Honorable Mention for Best Local News Coverage, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 3,000.

Judging was performed primarily by active community newspaper editors and publishers and included retired university journalism professors and retired or former newspaper men and women.  

Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association is the voice of America’s community newspapers and the largest newspaper association in the country. The nation’s community papers inform, educate and entertain nearly 150 million readers every week.

President Obama on Thursday recommitted his administration and, indirectly, congressional Democrats to comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already living in the U.S.

The president said immigration reform cannot wait, and he urged congressional Republicans to join with Democrats and the American people, who he said have already made immigration a top priority.

“I’m ready to move forward,” he said during his speech at American University. ”But the fact is without bipartisan support we cannot solve this problem. We cannot pass comprehensive reform without Republican votes. That is a political and mathematical reality.”

He started the speech by explaining the country needs ”one, clear national standard,” and he outlined the problems that can arise from ”a patchwork” of immigration laws in different states across the country, a reference to Arizona’s law that requires local and state police to arrest illegal immigrants and to calls in at least a dozen other states for similar laws.

Obama said it’s time to be honest about the problems and get past the “false debates.” He said both sides of the immigration fight have resorted to distorting the facts and clamoring for the kinds of laws that would be untenable on practical and moral levels.

“This issue lends itself to demagoguing,” Obama said.

He said those seeking amnesty for the 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. would lead to a surge in illegal immigration and would be unfair to those waiting for legal documentation to come into the U.S. Plus, he said, those who willingly broke the law should be held accountable.

But Obama also said rounding up all of the illegal immigrants and their children would be devastating because so many of them are “woven into the American fabric” by holding jobs, owning homes and contributing to their communities in other ways.

He said young children who crossed the border illegally with their parents should be allowed to pursue the American Dream, and he reiterated his longheld support for the Dream Act. 

The president also said a seal-the-border-first approach would delay much-needed changes to the immigration system as a whole. Republican representatives and senators, however, have said they won’t vote for any immigration measures until the border has been secured.

“I do not agree with President Obama’s assertion that we must pass comprehensive immigration reform in order to secure the border.  I do, however, believe it is necessary that we secure the border before we try to pass comprehensive immigration reform,” U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl said in response to the president’s speech. 

In addition, Obama said Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano has been directed to improve federal immigration enforcement policies without waiting for a new law. He said that means more troops on the border and more support staff to stop violent criminals and drug cartels from entering the U.S.

He said federal agents are seizing more contraband than ever before and that crime is down along the border, despite reports to the contrary.

“The border is more secure today than it has been at any time during the past 20 years,” he said.

Kyl disputed that assertion as well.

“The President and his administration claim that much has been done over the past two years to secure the border,” Kyl said. ”Yet, a half a million people still illegally enter our country today, most through Arizona, and his administration has yet to lay out a strategy on how it intends to bring it under control.”