Protests, both physical and verbal, are erupting at the Arizona Capitol and around the country to the legislative approval of a wide-reaching bill to combat illegal immigration.
On Tuesday, students from Arizona State University were arrested after chaining themselves to the doors of the Old Capitol. That followed a rally by various religious and community leaders about 75 yards away urging Gov. Jan Brewer to veto the measure which now sits on her desk.
Petitions with more than 80,000 signatures urging a veto were hand delivered to gubernatorial press aide Paul Senseman, who met with them privately. Brewer was in Tucson on Tuesday.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik pronounced the legislation to be “political fornicaboobery.” Dupnik said his officers already have the right — and do — stop people who they believe are in this country illegally.
And outside the state, Roger Mahoney, the cardinal of Los Angeles, said the legislation amounts to “reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation.”
