The architect of most of the anti-illegal-immigration legislation introduced in the Legislature the past six years is at it again, with 13 bills, resolutions and memorials already to his name.
He hopes these measures will stem the tide of immigrants crossing the state’s southern border with Mexico.
Discouraging illegal border crossings, Rep. Russell Pearce says, can be done with a simple two-pronged approach: secure the border and take away the incentives that attract immigrants to Arizona like a moth to a flame. The latter was the goal of 2004’s Proposition 200, which Pearce helped write, that limited the public benefits illegal immigrants could receive.
“It’s like Disneyland — if you want people to go home, you shut down the rides,” the District 18 Republican said.
Such is the purpose of a forthcoming employer sanctions proposal that Pearce says is getting a final vetting before being introduced as both a bill and a concurrent resolution, which would allow the Legislature to put the item on the ballot in 2008 if the bill is vetoed by Governor Napolitano.
Pearce’s proposal, which will be one of several on employer sanctions, hopes to stop all businesses from hiring illegal workers, but will mete out the most severe penalties on those employers who thumb their nose at the law and knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Those owners, he said, should lose their license to operate their business.
“I don’t want to punish the guy who’s trying, but I do want to punish the guy who’s winking and nodding at the law,” he said.
The prospective legislation also will include requirements for both government agencies and private businesses to use the Basic Pilot program, an Internet-based program that verifies an employee’s Social Security number and immigration status.
Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-13, said that, while Democrats were also drafting an immigration proposal that will include employer sanctions, the general architecture of Pearce’s plan is similar to the one his Democratic caucus is creating.
“This is one issue that I actually agree with Mr. Pearce on,” he said. “The magnet that draws folks across the border is jobs.”
One important component to any employer sanction program if it is to be successful, Gallardo said, is giving the attorney general the funding needed to enforce its provisions and prosecute those who run afoul of the law. Employer sanction legislation drafted last year ended up being watered down by business advocacy groups, he said, and was “a dog and pony show” more than it was an actual deterrent to hiring illegal workers.
Gallardo says he hopes that doesn’t happen again this year.
“We need real employer sanctions that has teeth in it and offers some kind of penalty,” he said.
Kids of border crossers
Removing the incentive for foreign nationals to surreptitiously enter Arizona is also the purpose H2471, Pearce says. If it passes in its present form, any children of illegal immigrants born after the law goes into effect are no longer eligible for public programs, such as public education and health care.
He says illegal immigrant couples that have “a jackpot baby” are able to qualify for food stamps, health care and other benefits because of the child.
Gallardo scoffed at the proposal, saying it was impractical and unconstitutional.
“He could not prohibit that, even if it were to pass,” he said.
The biggest obstacle, not doubt, is the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Ratified in 1868, the amendment reads, in part: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Pearce says the amendment was drafted to deal with slaves, who, after being freed, were not citizens of any country, and the interpretations by the courts — beginning with the 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark — that anyone born in this country is a citizen are incorrect. He cites the clause “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and says the immigrants, and their children, don’t meet that criteria, as they are citizens of another country.
“You don’t have jurisdiction over illegal aliens — they have their own government,” he said.
However, Pearce acknowledges the bill “probably won’t get out of here,” much like its legislative sibling, HCM2005, which asks Congress to revise the 14th Amendment to exclude the children of illegal immigrants. Still, he hopes it draws attention to the problems this state is facing because of illegal immigration.
“It’s not meant to be mean-spirited, it’s not because I’m evil,” he said of his intentions. “It’s because the law needs to be enforced and I want to make a point.”