Tea Party activist Michael Erickson was successful in moving his illegal immigration enforcement idea to the signature collection process. The California ballot initiative called “Support Federal Immigration Law Act” which closely mirrors Arizona’s SB1070 immigration law would require law enforcement officers to check suspected illegal aliens for immigration status.
According to the bill’s author, the proposed-immigration law will expand police officers ability enforce immigration laws when they have a reasonable suspicion that a person is undocumented and/or committing other crimes.
The proposed law would also make it a crime for illegal aliens to seek employment while concealing their illegal resident status.
While most complain the illegal aliens are protected from the enforcement of federal immigration laws, Erickson says his law would also target employers who “intentionally or negligently” hire illegal immigrants.
This issue recently played out in the California Gubernatorial race when Republican Meg Whitman, who went through legal channels and hired an employment service, found out years later her housekeeper was in the country illegally. The housekeeper, Nicky Diaz-Santillan, lied as well as forged counterfeit documents to con the employment agency and the Whitman family to procure employment.
The end result of this legal ruse was a Whitman loss and her household was forced to pay the illegal alien $5,500 for uncollected wages (she was making $23/per hour). Ironically the illegal alien has yet to face any criminal charges for fraud, perjury and residing in the state illegally.
The “Support Federal Immigration Act” would allow legal residents to sue government agencies, law enforcement or cities who attempt to provide “sanctuary status” to known illegal aliens.
California Secretary of State, Debra Bowen cleared the last hurdle for the initiative to begin the signature collection process this week. Authors will now need to collect at least 433,971 signatures from California registered voters by April 21, 2011, in order to make the ballot for the 2012 elections.
Comments 1
doesn’t something almost identical to SB 1070 ALREADY exist on the books in California?? This seems superfluous.