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  California Secretary of State's office gives go-ahead for petition drive to put Arizona-style immigration law on ballot
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ContributorHikikomori Blitzkrieg! 
Last EditedHikikomori Blitzkrieg!  Nov 24, 2010 05:29am
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CategoryNews
AuthorSusan Ferriss
MediaNewspaper - San Jose Mercury News
News DateWednesday, November 24, 2010 06:15:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionThe California Secretary of State's office on Tuesday authorized a signature drive to place an Arizona-style immigration law before California voters.

Called the "Support Federal Immigration Law Act," the proposal was submitted to state authorities in September by Michael Erickson, a tea party activist in Belmont and former chair of the Sonoma County Republican Party.

Erickson, speaking at a videotaped rally on his initiative's website, said he worked with a legal team to draft a version of Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, which requires that police investigate a person's legal status if an office has reasonable suspicion of that status.

"Since we're never going to get something like this passed through the Democrat-controlled Legislature, it's going to be we the people who are going to make it happen," Erickson said at the rally.

Erickson told the Sacramento Bee Tuesday that he's tried to draft his proposal -- which also makes it a state crime to hire illegal immigrants -- to avoid constitutional pitfalls. The Arizona law now faces challenges that it is unconstitutional and an overreaching of state law into federal responsibility for immigration enforcement.

Initiative supporters must gather at least 433,971 signatures of registered voters by April 21 to qualify for an election. Erickson said he'd aim to put the measure before voters during the 2012 election cycle.
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