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CommentsRussel Pearce is crying fowl over proposition 202
If voters pass Proposition 202 on Nov. 4, opponents such as Russell Pearce will be crying loud and long that the initiative was deceptively worded.
If voters pass Proposition 202 on Nov. 4, opponents such as Russell Pearce will be crying loud and long that the initiative was deceptively worded.
Stop Illegal Hiring is its official name. Sounds like something that all Arizonans want to do, right?
Maybe that’s why 63 percent of an early October survey by pollster Bruce Merrill said voters would be for the initiative. If that percentage holds going into the election, Republican attorney Andrew Pacheco, 202 campaign chair, and the business-owner backers of the measure, will have trumped the toughest employer sanctions law in the country.
Proposition 202 -- win or lose -- is another example of the civil war within the Republican Party between moderate Republicans such as Pacheco and the business interests backing 202, and the far right stances taken by party extremists like Pearce.
In reality, Proposition 202 would supersede the Pearce-sponsored Employer Sanctions Law that went into effect last January. If passed, 202 sets less stringent standards for when and how a state employer can be punished for knowingly hiring undocumented workers. It doesn’t require employers to use the E-Verify system to check employees.
It also makes it mandatory that people who turn in employers for hiring undocumented workers file notarized complaints, instead of anonymously filing complaints, as they can now under Pearce’s law and under Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ legal interpretation.
The conservative Republican alliance of Pearce and Thomas, who helped Pearce draft the law, as of press time was working hard to tell the public Proposition 202 may fool the voter.
Facts that don’t fool are that the backers of Stop Illegal Hiring reported in mid October that they had raised $570,000. Pearce and others opposing the proposition reported raising just $20,000.
Pearce, sensing impending defeat, commented in a local newspaper, “They will undo everything we’ve done.”
Pacheco told Latino Perspectives, “Proposition 202 is tough, enforceable, and fair.
Reader Comments:
All anyone has to do is look at who is behind Prop 202 to see who this is going to benefit... the people who have and will use cheap illegal labor. This prop was brought about by people in the fast food industry, argricultural industry, lanscaping and chambers of commerce. They tried to stop our employer sanctions law in court several times and failed, even before a 9th circuit judge! Now they are counting on fooling people into voting their way. They called this prop 'Stop Illegal Hiring' for one reason only. They know that the majority of Arizona voters want illegal hiring stopped. They are counting on the voters to see the title, believe it and vote yes for it because that's what they want. They are counting on voters NOT looking at what Prop 202 REALLY is and does. It's a lie that will destroy our current sanctions law and make it easier for people to hire illegals without fear of any prosecution.
Sure, Prop 202 has 'stiffer penalities' for employers but stiffer penalties do NO GOOD when they can't be enforced. Prop 202 makes enforcement IMPOSSIBLE!
No matter what your ethnicity, if you are an American you should be on the side of YOUR country, America! If you want to put an end to illegal immigration that is destroying our way of life and the loss of American jobs to illegal aliens, please, VOTE NO ON 202.
The people of Arizona are not as naive as this proposition's sponsors assume and the Tucson Citizen is one more major newspapers in our great state to prove this.
http://stopproposition202.com
Kevin
election2008@cox.net