Arizona considers further restricting benefits
for immigrants
by Jacques
Billeaud - Associated Press
PHOENIX - The Arizona Legislature is considering a proposal to ask
voters in November to expand the list of government benefits that
are denied to illegal immigrants.
Sixteen months ago, voters approved Proposition 200-a law that denied
government benefits to immigrants. State Attorney General Terry
Goddard later issued a legal opinion saying the restrictions applied
to only a handful of small welfare programs.
The state Senate voted 18 11 Thursday to ask voters to approve two
new restrictions which would prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving
state funded child care assistance or attending adult education
classes.
If approved by the state House, the proposals would appear on the
November ballot.
A bill with similar restrictions was approved by the Legislature
last year, but Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed it, saying it would
have punished illegal immigrants whose parents brought them to Arizona
when they were small children.
Supporters say additional restrictions are needed to discourage
immigrants from coming to Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point
on the nation's porous southern border.
"This is what everybody thought they were getting when they
passed (Proposition) 200," said Republican Sen. Dean Martin
of Phoenix, sponsor of the proposal.
Opponents say the proposal is unfair because it focuses on illegal
border crossers yet does nothing to confront employers who turn
to immigrants for cheap labor.
"No jobs, no immigrants-that's the way it would be," said
Democratic Sen. Bill Brotherton of Phoenix, who voted against the
proposal. "And (Republicans) are not interested in addressing
that part of the equation."
The Senate voted down Brotherton's attempts to amend the proposal
to include punishment for employers who break the law by hiring
illegal immigrants.
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