Arizona Rejects Immigration Bills

The Arizona Senate has rejected five bills aimed at controlling illegal immigration and undocumented immigrants. Last year, Arizona was at the center of a national debate of immigration. The bill proposed then called for strict local law enforcement which would authorize law enforcement to deport undocument immigrants. These five bills that were rejected today were not as controversial as the bill from last year. One of the bills would question the validity of granting automatic citizenship to the children born in the United States whose parents illegally immigrated to the state. The other bills included school reporting undocument immigrants who enroll into the school, patients without insurance or legal documentation, and making it illegal for undocumented immigrants to dive in Arizona. All these bills are weak attempts at addressing a growing problem in Arizona. Obviously, many people do not want to be dealing with this problem, especially businesses. Increase in law enforcement on undocumented immigrants are a problem to businesses because they may be employing those people. Also, somewhat suprising, the Republicans in the state were split over the bills rejected. The supporters of the bills voiced frustration because of the slow pace of enacting enforcement. A Republican Senator, Russell Pearce, even stated that the reason there is little progress on the subject is a "lack of political courage."
Illegal immigration and undocumented immigrants are a pressing issue. It affects not only Arizona but California as well. Personally, I do not think the bills rejected today would have made much of the difference except for the one questioning the validity of automatic citizenship to the children of undocument immigrants. All of the bills were just scratching at the door of a large problem that has to be addressed by all the states affected and the federal government. Last summer the issue got people debating but that has gone down. I think the rejection of the bills will once again make people think about the issue but there has to be a more significant step to actually get people to seriously consider and debate about the issue once again.