California Doesn't Need Anti-Immigrant Law

Arizona's constitutionally dubious immigration law would seem to be the last thing that California needs right now. In addition to the intangible cost of becoming a national punch line, Arizona has lost an estimated $140 million in canceled meeting and convention business.


Nevertheless, Secretary of State Debra Bowen has just sanctioned signature gathering for a local Tea Party activist's effort to emulate much of the Arizona's Senate Bill 1070.

The California version, known as the Support Federal Immigration Law Act, is being promoted by Michael Erickson of Belmont, a former chairman of the Sonoma County Republican Party.

Erickson says in a video on his website that the reason for his initiative - which would require 433,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot - is that such a measure never would make it through the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

There are good reasons California lawmakers would not attempt to duplicate Arizona's folly. President Obama's Justice Department has made it plain that the priorities for its limited resources are drug cartels and dangerous criminals - and that effort would be diluted with a sudden surge of otherwise law-abiding immigrants hauled in by local authorities. The authority of the federal government to set immigration policy is well established in this nation. Also, many local law enforcement leaders, including San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón, warn that a law that turns local police into immigration officers makes it more difficult to fight crime.

Besides, if this measure were to pass, California would spend a lot of money trying to defend a law that would be pared back severely by the courts - as Arizona's has been.

It's a bad idea. Don't sign the petition.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz16n7XT28B

Another article from the LA Times

Proponents of a California initiative modeled after Arizona's controversial immigration law may begin gathering signatures to place the measure on the ballot in 2012, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Tuesday.

The measure would require state and local law enforcement officers to investigate the immigration status of anyone they lawfully stop and "reasonably" suspect may be in the country illegally. It would also make it a crime for illegal immigrants to seek work while concealing their legal status and for employers to "intentionally or negligently" hire them.

Initiative proponent Michael Erickson would need to collect signatures from 433,971 registered voters by April 21, 2011, to qualify it for the ballot. If it is validated, the measure could be placed before voters in February or June of 2012.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,7284739.story

God help me/us if this ever happened to California. I never thought it could happen to Arizona because of the huge immigrant population, so it scares me it's possible here. =/

It's never going to happen in CALI. We have Jerry Brown and the state senate and Assembly are held by Dems.

If the voters do approve this it will be killed by the courts before it takes affect!!!!

I really do hope so. In 1994 prop 187 Save Our State SOS was passed and it was a ballot designed for a state-run citizenship screening in order to prohibit undocumented people from using health care, public education and other stuff as well.

I really do hope nothing like SB 1070 gets passed over here