State Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, urged Gov. Jan Brewer to call a special legislative session to deal with illegal immigration and proposed changes to state immigration law at a press conference Wednesday morning.
Pearce was joined by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, County Attorney Andrew Thomas and many other representatives of state and local law enforcement.
Pearce’s call to action comes a week after Arpaio was stripped of his powers to enforce federal immigration law, which had been granted under the federal 287 (g) program, which allows local law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of people in custody.
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Arpaio had used his new powers to conduct a series of “crime suppression sweeps” — picking up suspected illegal immigrants for unrelated offenses and then checking their immigration status — that civil liberties advocates and immigration reform activists said amounted to racial profiling.
“The federal government has refused to do their job, and now, they’ve taken it a step farther,” Pearce said. “Enough is enough.”
The legislation being proposed by Pearce, titled “Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” includes changes that would make being in Arizona illegally a violation of state trespassing law. A similar bill failed to pass during the last legislative session in June.
Pearce said he also wants to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and outlaw local policies he calls “sanctuary city” policies — that is, any local statute that would keep local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration law.
“We have a constitutional responsibility to our citizens,” Pearce said. “We don’t need no stinking 287 (g), we don’t need a permission slip from the federal government.”
Pearce, Arpaio, Thomas and several state senators spoke to a crowd of about 75 people, mostly supporters, including union members and representatives of the state and local law enforcement communities.
Thomas praised the steps already taken by the state Legislature, including the employer sanctions law that allows the state to revoke the business licenses of employers who hire illegal immigrants.
“This Legislature has had the guts to give us the laws we need to fight illegal immigration on the ground, at the state and local level in Arizona,” Thomas said.
The employer sanctions law, referenced several times by Thomas and Pearce, has not resulted in any business license revocations since it was passed about two years ago, but proponents say it has had a deterrent effect.
Brewer was pleased with the idea, and Pearce said he was in serious talks with her office to arrange for a special session this year. Brewer was not at the press conference, but her office released a statement saying she is interested in the idea.
“The Governor has been very aggressive this year and throughout her career in the fight against illegal immigration and securing our border,” the statement said. “She looks forward to meeting with Senator Pearce about his proposals.”
Terry Greene Sterling, a writer-in-residence at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said she doubts the measure will pass.
Sterling, who is conducting research for a book about illegal immigration tentatively titled “Illegal: Hope and Loss on the Border,” said the latest crime suppression sweeps in Maricopa County were so extreme they have only garnered the support of far-right wing politicians.
“I don’t know if they have the votes to do what they say they’re going to do,” Sterling said. “These [recent] measures enforcing illegal immigration have been so severe that they’ve disenfranchised a lot of moderates.”
The main reason the previous bill failed to pass is because it was scheduled to be voted on in the state House of Representatives after the budget, Pearce said. He will work closely with Brewer and legislative leadership to give the newly proposed legislation special attention, he said.
“We’re going to pass it, and the message is going to be loud and clear: [If] you come into this country, you come in legally,” Pearce said. “If not, you’re going to be arrested and deported.”
Reach the reporter derek.quizon@asu.edu.
