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Arizona-style immigration law proposed for California ballot

Published: November 23, 2010 | No Comments

A ballot measure that would make it state crimes to hire an illegal immigrant and for illegal immigrants to seek work under false pretenses will soon be circulating on the streets of California. The measure’s sponsors have been given the go-ahead by the secretary of state to begin collecting signatures to place their proposal on the ballot.

The proposal is patterned after a controversial Arizona law, but its sponsors say it has features that will make it more likely to withstand a constitutional challenge.

The measure was submitted by Michael Erickson, a former Sonoma County Republican Party chairman and an activist in the Tea Party movement. He runs a web site called “Republicans for the National Interest.”

In an essay he titled “Can California be Salvaged?” Erickson wrote that he believed “lower middle class” tradesmen and “Poor Hispanics” will find common cause “as both see that they are equally victims of a system of illegal immigration that just perpetuates the exploitation of the poor by the elites, all in the name of ‘social justice’ and ‘welcoming everyone.’”

The measure would require law enforcement officers who stop or detain a person where “reasonable suspicion” exists that the person is here illegally to make an effort to determine the person’s immigration status. The proposal would prohibit police from stopping a person solely because they suspect him or her is here illegally, and it requires police to adhere to federal immigration law and the US and California constitutions.

The proposal would impose a fine of $5,000 and revocation of a business license on the second offense for employers who negligently hire an illegal immigrant. Employers who are found to intentionally hire someone who is in the country illegally would face a $10,000 fine and loss of their business license. It would also be illegal for anyone to impede traffic by stopping their car to pick up a day laborer looking for work.

Erickson has until April 21 to collect 434,000 valid signatures.

-Daniel Weintraub

 

LA Times/USC Poll: More than 60 percent support path to legal status for immigrants working here

Published: October 24, 2010 | No Comments

Nearly half of California voters believe immigrants are more of a benefit than a burden to the state, and more than 60 percent say that undocumented immigrants who have lived and worked here for two years or more should be allowed to stay and legalize their status, according to a new Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll.

Forty-eight percent of voters polled said they thought immigrants were a benefit to the state, while 33 percent said they were a burden. Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say that immigrants were a benefit to California.

Sixty-one percent of those polled said undocumented immigrants who have been working here for two years or more should be given a path to legal status, while 28 percent said they should be deported.

Broken down by party registration, 73 percent of Democrats said undoumented immigrants who have been working should be allowed to stay, while 19 percent of Democrats said they should be deported. Forty-five percent of Republicans favored a path to legal status while 42 percent favored deportation. Among independents, 63 percent favored legal status while 22 percent supported deportation.

See the full poll results here.

 

Californians divided over Arizona immigration law

Published: July 16, 2010 | No Comments

By Daniel Weintraub

Californians are split over an Arizona law that seeks to crack down on illegal immigration, with 49 percent in support of the law and 45 percent opposed, according to a new independent survey by the Field Poll. The division falls sharply along party and ethnic lines.

Democrats oppose the Arizona law by a margin of 62-33, Republicans support it, 77-17. Independent voters oppose the law by a margin of 49-46.

Majorities of white, African-American and Asian-American voters all approve of the law. Latinos oppose it. Fifty-eight percent of white voters, 53 percent of African-Americans, and 50 percent of Asian-Americans back the law. But 71 percent of Latino voters oppose it.

The law requires immigrants to carry documentation and allows police to ask for proof of legal residency when they stop someone. Supporters say the law gives Arizona the ability to police a problem that the federal government has allowed to grow with lax border enforcement. Opponents say it will lead to discrimination and allow police to use ethnic profiling to harass Latinos on the street.

Both candidates for governor of California — Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman — say they oppose the law. But Whitman’s supporters are far more likely to favor the law than Brown’s, the poll found.

The poll also looked at Californians’ attitudes toward illegal immigration generally. In some cases, it found that those opinions had moderated over the years since the state passed Proposition 187 in 1994, which sought to eliminate education and health care for immigrants who were here without proper documentation. That law was later struck down by the courts.

But the poll found that, amid the ongoing economic downturn, attitudes toward illegal immigration are hardening again.

Overall, 34 percent of Californians said that illegal immigration has a positive effect on the state, with 56 percent saying the effect was unfavorable. That compares to 26 percent who thought the effect was positive in 1994, and 36 percent in 2006.

The number of Californians who think that undocumented immigrants are taking jobs away from legal residents is the same today as it was in 1994: 34 percent. Although a large majority (58 percent) say undocumented immigrants do jobs that no one else wants, that number is lower today than it was in 2006, when economic times were better. Then, 65 percent said no one else wanted the jobs that undocumented workers do.

To see the entire poll, click here.

 

Immigration bill would allow resident status for half million young Californians

Published: July 14, 2010 | No Comments

By Daniel Weintraub

More than a half million young Californians who are in the country illegally could qualify for legal status under legislation pending in Congress, according to a new study by a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that focuses on immigration issues.

The legislation, known as the DREAM Act, would allow undocumented immigrants to apply for permanent resident status if they are under age 35, arrived in the US before the age of 16, have lived here for at least the last five years and have earned a highs school diploma or GED certificate.

The bill, which has bipartisan support in Congress, is intended to normalize the status of young people who were brought here illegally by their parents as children but have since attended school, graduated and gone onto college or military service.

Immigrants who qualify would first be given conditional legal status, and that conditional status would be removed in six years if they complete at least two more years of school or military serve and maintain “good moral character.”

The study by the Migration Policy Institute concludes that about 2.1 million people would qualify for the path to legal status. Of those, the largest number — 553,000 — reside in California. That’s 26 percent of the total.

Other states with large numbers of potential beneficiaries include Texas (258,000), Florida (192,000), New York (146,000) and Arizona (114,000).

To see the full report, go here.

 
 
 

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