Due to an overflowing committee hearing room, people wait and watch on a small television as Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, testifies before the House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee regarding a possible amendment that makes changes to an immigration bill before the committee at the Arizona State Capitol Wednesday, March 31, 2010, in Phoenix. A bill would ban soft immigration policies in police agencies and prohibit people from blocking traffic when they seek or offer day-labor services on street corners. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona House committee advanced a bill Wednesday that would criminalize the presence of illegal immigrants in the state.
The House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee advanced the legislation on an 8-3 vote. The committee changed key provisions, but critics said the changes still leave many questions unanswered.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, would ban soft immigration policies in police agencies and prohibit people from blocking traffic when they seek or offer day-labor services on street corners.
Some 460,000 illegal immigrants live in Arizona, according to recent federal estimates.
“I’m tired of those folks who simply advocate we don’t enforce our laws, Pearce said. “I’m tired of those folks who ignore the damage to our nation.”
As originally introduced, the bill would have criminalized the presence of illegal immigrants under state law through an expansion of the trespassing statute.
Under the changes adopted Wednesday, the measure would instead create the new crime of willful failure to complete or carry an alien registration document. It would allow officers to arrest immigrants who are unable to show documents proving they’re legally in the country.
But critics said the provision could cause legal immigrants and U.S. citizens to be detained. Federal law requires legal immigrants to carry identification at all times, but citizens are not required to have ID.
Pearce dismissed the criticism, saying police officers routinely verify the identity of people they stop.
The bill also seeks to draw local police deeper into the fight against illegal immigration by allowing people to sue police agencies if they believe the agency has a policy that restricts the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Many of the state’s local police bosses have long resisted suggestions that their officers conduct day-to-day immigration enforcement, saying it would distract them from investigating other crimes and sow distrust among immigrants, who might not help officers investigating crimes because they fear being sent home.
Pearce tried to address those concerns by inserting a provision saying officers are only required to ask about immigration status “when practicable,” but critics said it wasn’t enough to give crime victims the confidence to call police.
“Victims and witnesses are not going to come forward based on an arbitrary decision by a law enforcement officer,” said John Thomas, a lobbyist for the Arizona Associated of Chiefs of Police.
The measure now goes to the full House. The Senate approved the bill in February, but senators would have to re-approve it to accept the changes made in the House.
“Our current immigration policy is broken,” said Jennifer Allen, director of the Border Action Network, a Tucson-based immigrant rights group. “This piece of legislation, however, is not the solution and does nothing to address the problems plaguing the United States immigration policy.”
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Associated Press Writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed.
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