Common Sense In Arizona

Public employees are now required to ask applicants for public benefits about their citizenship and immigration status, and to report those illegally in the country to immigration authorities. Federal Judge David Bury upheld the law, which was adopted by the voters on November 2, 2004.

Supporters of border-jumping invaders are outraged, as are the damp-vertebraed criminals themselves.

Jesus Garcia, an undocumented immigrant from Sonora, said the proposition already has bred fear and uncertainty in immigrant communities. Garcia, a 47-year-old construction worker who has lived in Tucson since 1998 after spending nearly a decade in the Valley, said his wife is afraid to go to government offices, even though the couple's three children are U.S. citizens.

"I think it's racist," Garcia said. "They don't understand if (undocumented immigrants) receive help, it's not for them, it's for the kids who are U.S. citizens. They're trying to put pressure on immigrants, and it's very dangerous . . . because some won't seek help."

This does point out an obvious problem -- we need to change the Fourteenth Amendment to exclude from citizenship the offspring of those in the country in contravention of American law. In the mean time, I see no reason for not taking the citizen-children of immigration criminals like Garcia into the foster care system, where they can be placed with US citizen families and adopted following the termination of the parental rights of their law-breaking parents.

One issue is still being fought. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard issued a narrow definition of "public benefits" covered by Proposition 200. Groups that sponsored and supported teh measure have a suit pending to expand the definition.