1157
Tired of waiting for the feds to act our state legislature passed Seante Bill 1157 – entitled trespassing by illegal aliens and sent it on to the Governor for her signature. This is a bill that allows for the arrest and prosecution of illegal aliens under Arizona’s trespassing laws. A Class A misdemeanor for the first offense, and possible hangings for repeat offenders, or something like that. This comes just two days after historic marches in support of immigration reform. Our two U.S. Senators have come out against the bill (yes, even Senator Kyl). No monies are attached to the bill, but I guess deputizing the militia could help solve that. Curious how your rep voted? House Senate
The bill itself does not contain appropriations to carry out the arrest, prosecution, and incarceration of illegals, but SB 1158 and SB 1159 do.
What gets me about this is people, especially those in law enforcement, saying this is a mandate and they’ll have to “hunt down” illegals. No, it’s not a mandate, and no, no one is saying to hunt them down. In fact, Section 1-A-1 makes this very clear:
“Section 1. Section 12-820.02, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:
“12-820.02. Qualified immunity
“A. Unless a public employee acting within the scope of the public employee’s employment intended to cause injury or was grossly negligent, neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for:
“1. The failure to make an arrest or the failure to retain an arrested person in custody.”
Basically, it says if a cop doesn’t arrest an illegal but didn’t do it to cause harm to anyone or wasn’t grossly negligent, the cop’s in the clear. If he doesn’t think citizenship status is an issue with someone in custody, the cop doesn’t have to pursue a further investigation into a suspect’s status.
Also:
“Sec. 2. Title 13, chapter 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 13-124, to read:
“13-124. Peace officers; question immigration status
“A. A peace officer who lawfully detains a person based on the reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime may question that person regarding the person’s immigration status.
“B. This state and any political subdivision of this state shall not prohibit a peace officer from performing the duty authorized by this section.”
Remember when the seat belt law first went into effect? Police officers were told that if they pulled someone over for another offense and noticed that the driver and/or front seat passenger wasn’t wearing a seat belt, then they could be charged, but officers were not to pull people over simply because they saw someone driving without their seat belt on.
This is essentially the same deal. If someone is in custody on another matter, an officer can also look into the suspect’s immigration status. There is no mandate to actively seek out illegals.