Dennis RomeroWhile much of Arizona's controversial immigration law has been held up in court, some Californians are trying to put a similar measure on our 2012 ballot.
Because we all know whatever problems we have — unemployment, the deficit, slow iPhone connections — are the fault of those folks who wash our cars, mow our lawns and clean dishes in the backs of the restaurants we like. Bad Mexicans.
And so, without further adieu, the language of California's own Arizona initiative:
Requires all highway patrol, police, sheriffs and other sworn officers to investigate immigration status when they are reasonably suspicious that a person stopped is in the country illegally.
That's right, just like Arizona's so-far failed law, it would require brown people to show their “papers” at the behest of law enforcement.
It also has some redundant language (stuff that is already covered by federal law, but who's reading):
MAKES IT A CRIME FOR UNDOCUMENTED PERSONS TO SEEK WORK WHILE CONCEALING THEIR IMMIGRATION STATUS AND ALSO MAKES IT A CRIME FOR ANY EMPLOYER TO HIRE AN UNDOCUMENTED PERSON INTENTIONALLY OR NEGLIGENTLY. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
The next step, notes California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, is that organizers need to collect signatures.
The guy who turned in the language, Michael Erickson, submitted an email address affiliated with the conservative website The Reagan Report, which appears to be run by the son of late President Ronald Reagan — Michael Reagan.
Read more about it here (PDF).
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