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State solicitor general: Enforce 200 now

Attorneys for the state want a federal judge to let Arizona begin enforcing the provisions of Proposition 200 next week. In legal papers filed Monday, Mary O'Grady, the state's solicitor general, said nothing in the voter-approved initiative conflicts with federal law. She told U.S. District Judge David Bury of Tucson that the state is entitled to tell government workers to check the immigration status of applicants for public benefits. O'Grady said Bury should also permit enactment of a related provision that requires those same government workers to file written reports when an applicant turns out to be in the United States illegally. She acknowledged that the federal government is constitutionally precluded from requiring state employees to submit such reports. But she said nothing blocks the state from enacting a law - whether legislatively or through the ballot - mandating that duty for its own public workers. Attorneys for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund contend Proposition 200 illegally puts state workers in the business of enforcing federal immigration law. They succeeded last month in getting Bury to temporarily block implementation of the law until he holds a hearing Dec. 22. Bury could issue a new injunction to hold the law in abeyance while the full issue is litigated, a process that could take months. But O'Grady wants to let the law take effect in the interim - something that will happen automatically if the judge takes no new action after that Dec. 22 hearing. O'Grady said no one's rights are being violated. "This provision does not require employees to do anything more than submit a report to the proper authorities if they are aware of a violation of law," she wrote. In fact, she said, laws already on the books permit workers to submit such reports. The only change, O'Grady said, is that now these reports are mandatory. That point was reinforced in a separate court filing on behalf of the Yes on 200 Committee. William Perry Pendley, president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, argued that the 1996 federal welfare reform law "expressly forbids the state and local governments from barring their employees from sending or receiving information regarding immigration status to federal immigration authorities." O'Grady said that law generally prohibits those not here legally from receiving most federal, state and local benefits. "Verification of immigration status ensures that undocumented immigrants ineligible for state and local benefits under the (federal law) do not receive those benefits," she said. That, O'Grady said, makes the provisions of Proposition 200 "consistent with, and certainly not pre-empted by, federal law." Pendley also told Bury that it is in the best interests of the people of Arizona to let the law take effect now. He said courts have a legitimate concern for protecting the poor, hungry and disabled. "Although the needs of all individuals should be considered, it is not the responsibility of the citizens of the state of Arizona to provide for these needs," Pendley wrote. "Moreover, Arizona's ability to care for the poor, the hungry or the disabled who are in this country legally is affected adversely by Arizona's tax dollars being spent illegally on those not entitled to receive those benefits."