http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/knau/local-knau-961679.mp3
Phoenix, AZ – Pearce has been successful in just about everything he has pushed in his immigration agenda. But that changed last month when Republican colleagues joined with Democrats to kill five separate measures. Pearce told Arizona Public Radio he has thrown in the towel for the time being on the most controversial ones, including challenging the citizenship of children of illegal immigrants and requiring parents to provide proof of citizenship when they enroll their offspring in school. But Pearce plans to revive what he called enforcement provisions, like evicting families from public housing if there is a single illegal immigrant living there and denying those not here legally admission to state universities and community colleges.
(We know enforcement works. We know in our model that was written into 1070, that was attrition by enforcement. We know it works. We don't need comprehensive reform. We need comprehensive enforcement. And it's a shame we have to pass law to enforce law.)
The plan to resurrect the proposals appears to have the backing of Gov. Jan Brewer. In a separate interview she said immigration issues are of prime interest to many legislators. The governor suggested these measures may have failed because some lawmakers were distracted.
(I think their main concern was, of course, get the budget out. And now they've accomplished that, hopefully I'll get to sign that. And we can move forward with whatever they deem is important.)
A vote on the resurrected proposals could come this week. For Arizona Public Radio this is Howard Fischer.