The initiative route
The initiative route Rep. Russell Pearce, R-18 (left), and Minuteman president Chris Simcox, announce a drive to circulate petitions for two initiatives meant curb illegal migration.

Even as his employer sanctions bill moves through the Senate, Rep. Russell Pearce is moving forward on taking a stricter measure to the voters.
Pearce announced a coalition with other anti-illegal-immigration activists to gather the signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot in 2008.
Pearce, R-18, says making the move now to put employer sanctions on the ballot should send a clear message to fellow lawmakers and Gov. Janet Napolitano what the consequences are of not approving his bill, which is awaiting hearing in the Senate.
“Had they done this two years ago, the right way, we wouldn’t be here today,” he said. “I understand the concerns —even some of the good guys have concerns. We send a lot of stuff to the ballot —why is this any different?”
Pearce says he is confident H2779, his employer sanctions legislation, will be passed from the Senate in April without any major changes. What is unclear is what will happen when the bill lands on Napolitano’s desk. Pearce thinks she’ll do what she’s done in the past.
“She’s vetoed everything of significance that we’ve sent her,” he said. “The purpose of the initiative process is when you have an unresponsive leader, and that’s what we have here.”
Message to Senate GOP
The initiative conveyed a very clear message to Senate Republicans: they need to work on H2779 now.
“Obviously, I think they are sending a strong message that citizens are out there and they believe this strongly and I actually agree with them, that the folks — our citizens here —they want something done,” Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor said.
Verschoor, R-22, said he has little doubt that if the issue is put to the ballot, citizens will overwhelmingly approve it. If that happens, future legislatures will be virtually unable to change its provisions, as a 1998 voter-approved measure requires a three-fourths vote to amend a ballot proposition, and changes can only be made to further the intent of the measure.
“We have to do something,” he said. “And you know what, if we don’t do something in this Legislature, I’m going to be right out there, helping gather those darned signatures because I am not going to be accused of not doing something.”
Businesses also need to take heed of Pearce’s initiative, Verschoor said, because, if the issue is put to the ballot, “instead of the second or third time that an employer has a violation and risks losing his license, it will be in the first time. And there won’t be a chance to fix it.
“And so the business community needs to stop messing around with it and needs to help get this legislation out of here —the legislation that Representative Pearce is in agreement with so that we can avoid this whole train wreck,” he said.
H2779 would fine businesses for the first two violations, including a license suspension on the second infraction. A third violation would result in a hefty fine and a revocation of a business license.
Pearce, Goldwater and Simcox
At a March 27 press conference, Pearce was joined by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Don Goldwater and Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, in announcing a pair of ballot initiatives designed to curb illegal immigration.
The employer sanctions initiative, known as Legal Arizona Workers, or LAW, will prohibit employers from “knowingly” hiring illegal workers. It would require all businesses to verify a prospective employee’s immigration status by using the Basic Pilot Program, a federal online Social Security verification tool. Violators would lose their business licenses.
“He can pick up and find another state to do business in,” Simcox said of the hypothetical businessman who would run afoul of the employer sanctions ballot measure.
Goldwater, who lost to Len Munsil in last year’s Republican gubernatorial primary election, said too many businesses use cheap, illegal labor to expand their profits.
“Those that are against this initiative believe they are above the law,” he said.
Getting police involved
The second initiative —Support Our Law Enforcement, or SOLE —would require all local law enforcement agencies to inquire about the citizenship status of all individuals they contact in the normal course of their duty and report illegal immigrants to Immigrations Control and Enforcement. The measure also contains language that would allow illegal immigrants to be prosecuted for trespassing. Napolitano vetoed similar language last year.
Business and law enforcement groups immediately came out in opposition to the initiatives.
Lt. Eric Edwards, general counsel for the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police and a member of the Phoenix Police Department, said the SOLE initiative would tax the resources of police departments by forcing them to focus on illegal immigration.
“We believe that this initiative would limit our ability to go after violent criminals,” he said.
He also said the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which governs Arizona, recently ruled that there are limits on what local law enforcement agencies can do to enforce federal immigration law. He said the initiative appears to violate that ruling.
“We have no lawful authority to detain someone if we have no lawful reason to investigate [them],” Edwards said.
Factory owner: Move would create ‘minefield’
Sheridan Bailey, an owner of a Phoenix steel company and founder of Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform, said the one-strike-and-you’re-out implications of the employer sanctions measure was “a heavy handed approach to solving a complex problem.”
“This creates a minefield that I have to walk through that, if I make a mistake…I get the death penalty,” Bailey said.
He suggested the real solution to the problem would be comprehensive reform at the federal level.
“We have a broad law —we’re not going to fix it with more Band Aids,” he said.
But Simcox said the will of the public is to do it now, locally and in the way the initiatives are proposing.
“If the governor’s not getting it done, we the people will,” he said.
In order to qualify for the 2008 ballot, each initiative must gather 153,365 valid signatures of registered voters by July 2008.
Reporter Luige del Puerto contributed to this article.