Posted by: ST on May 11, 2010 at 11:44 am
Great news:
PHOENIX — The two proposed referendum drives challenging Arizona’s new sweeping law targeting illegal immigration are being abandoned, organizers said Monday.
Andrew Chavez, a professional petition circulator involved in one of the efforts, said its backers pulled the plug after concluding they might not be able to time their petition filings in such a way as to put the law on hold pending a 2012 public vote.
Jon Garrido, the chief organizer of the other drive, attributed its end to a belief that the law would have been subject to legal protections under Arizona’s Constitution if approved by Arizona voters.
The law takes effect July 29 unless implementation is blocked by court injunctions requested under at least three of the four pending legal challenges already filed by an Hispanic clergy group, police officers and other individuals.
Its provisions include requiring that police enforcing another law must question a person about his or her immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the United States illegally. It also makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.
Critics have said the law will result in racial profiling of Hispanics. Supporters deny that and say the law will pressure illegal immigrants to leave the country on their own.
Chavez said his clients, whom he would not identify, launched the effort in the belief that they could put the law on hold until 2012 by not filing petition signatures until it was too late for state elections officials to place a referendum on the November ballot.
However, the backers decided over the weekend to end the referendum campaign when they concluded there still might be a November vote, not giving them enough time to be confident about being able to wage a successful campaign against the law, Chavez said.
DaTechGuy cuts through the bull:
The actual reason. People in Arizona support the law by 70% and throughout the country by 60%. Plus you have stuff like this going on. They would not only lose, they would lose spectacularly!
When you have the Suns trying to remove fans who disagree with their political views these guys are getting nervous.
The last thing they need is to show just how little support they actually have.
On the legal challenges front (again, via AP):
The four legal challenges filed so far in U.S. District Court in Phoenix have been randomly assigned to different judges. Several major civil-rights groups are expected to file another challenge as early as this week.
No hearings have been set yet on the lawsuits, which likely will be consolidated into one case before a single judge. That judge would then set a schedule for consideration of the plaintiffs’ requests for injunctions and rulings to strike down the law.
In spite of the fact that the referendum efforts have been dropped, the boycott of Arizona is still on – and so is the BUYcott and the end of May pro-bill rally, both of which you can learn more about here (scroll).
I guaran-dang-tee you, if there were 30 million Irishmen sneaking into this country illegally instead of 30 million Mexicans, there would be no opposition to this law or any law requiring people to prove their citizenship from any of the groups opposing the AZ immigration law. The opponents of the AZ immigration law don’t give a darn about protecting MY civil rights, or my Asian wife’s civil rights. They are just trying to protect and expand their political power base, which for them, happens to be Hispanic in nature.
Where I live, in San Antonio, I’m a minority being white. Most of my friends are Hispanic and they have not complained about the AZ bill at all. In fact, many of my friends have said they hope Texas adopts the same law. The reason – illegal Mexican immigrants tend to hide out in the areas of the city where there are more Hispanics concentrated. And therefore, the bad ones, who commit crimes, tend to victimize the legal Hispanic immigrants and American Hispanic population more than the white population. So, at least here, there is very little love lost between the illegal Mexican immigrants and the Hispanic population.
Tex, some way, some how, lurking libs will find a way to call your Hispanic friends racist.
They’ll deem it “tribal racism” or something.
Yep Sefton, you’re probably right. Hispanics in Texas tend to vote more conservative anyway than in other states, which already makes them a tempting target for Liberals to bash as traitors.
I will be accused of racism, but I’m no racist. I’m married to an American of Mexican descent. His family did things the legal way. None of my husband’s family from either side of the border are offended by this law. They live in border towns and all are suffering because of the flood of illegals through their hometowns, much as Tex described above.
These latino demonstrators are either 1) very stupid 2) very naive 4) mis-educated 3) traitors or 5) all of the preceding.
If they are citizens of the USA, they are seditionists. What do they think is going to happen if they do somehow realize their dream of occupying Morgan Hill for the Mexican government? Do they think life will be better for them? Not a chance! One of the great losses will be their freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.
How many of them benefit from affirmative action? Should they succeed in becoming a majority, they can kiss all their special benefits good-bye.
It really is traitorous to be in one country trying to claim territory for another. They should be in jail.
I am Eurasian and I have no problem with the law in Arizona. Of course my people came in through the front doornot the back door. We are a nation of laws !
If this was as offensive and filled with civil rights inequities, the Department of Justice would have done something at this point. Imagine trying to reinstate Jim Crow Laws…the only example I can think of…..the federal government which could try to claim supremacy in case the AZ law was overstepping their legal bounds has yet to be filed???
Doesn’t surprise me that anyone in AZ is hopping onto the referendum bandwagon….
Girls high school basketball team from Illinois ( their senator was?) won their tournament for the 1st time in many years and earned a trip to Arizona for which they had to raise the funds. Said trip has now been cancelled for the stated reason of not offending the large Mexican population in the area.
Good freakin’ grief
It’s tough for the feds to argue in court against laws that are simply a restatement of fed laws (put into state terms for enforcement, since the feds won’t enforce their own laws).
Ah, yes, a country of laws. Too bad the admin doesn’t respect them any more than the criminal aliens.