Letters to the editor

Arizona’s illegals

Your editorial “… While Arizonans debate illegals” (Sunday) had a number of errors in it. I list the errors below, followed by corrections:

• “The Protect Arizona Now Initiative … would require applicants for voter registration and public benefits to show proof of Arizona citizenship,” you write. This is not true. What is “Arizona citizenship” anyway? Applicants for voter registration have to show proof of U.S. citizenship and legal residency in Arizona, but applicants for public benefits would have to show proof of eligibility, not citizenship. This is more important than you may think because requiring proof of citizenship, rather than eligibility, is one of the key points that sank Proposition 187.

• “The idea is to cut expenditures on the state’s burgeoning illegal alien population and end issuance of fraudulent drivers’ licenses,” you write. Everyone already has to prove legal residency in Arizona to obtain a driver’s license here. Our initiative will have zero effect on illegal aliens’ ability to obtain driver’s licenses.

• “[Illegal aliens] are known to register to vote in order to obtain fraudulent state IDs,” you write. No one out here thinks they “register to vote in order to obtain fraudulent state IDs.” Even if this were true, it’s backwards: They have to have fraudulent IDs to vote, but they vote because special interest groups sign them up to vote.

• “California and Colorado are prominent among states that have similar emerging initiatives.” California’s and Colorado’s initiatives didn’t come close to getting on the ballot this year, and neither state can have a similar initiative. If they’re successful the second time, they must wait until the 2006 election. Hardly emerging, are they? m “Its provisions would extend only to non-emergency services such as voter registration, obtaining driver’s licenses,” you write. Welfare benefits under Title 46 are the only programs our initiative covers, and driver’s licenses are not a welfare benefit or covered under Title 46. So, again, driver’s licenses are not remotely affected by our initiative.

• “If Proposition 200 fails this November, the onus will lie squarely with Protect Arizona Now’s chairman Kathy McKee,” you write. Do you mean the same Kathy McKee — me —who started Protect Arizona Now two years ago — 1½ years before the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) tried its unsuccessful hostile takeover? Do you mean the Kathy McKee who is its largest individual contributor by far, even after quitting her job to put 18 to 20 hours a day into Protect Arizona Now without a cent of compensation? I successfully fought off FAIR’s hostile takeover attempt, which has been ongoing for almost eight months and has been the subject of one lawsuit (I won). It is sure to be the subject of future litigation which I also will win?

• Finally, you refer to politicians’ and unions’ objections to “criminalizing fraud and abuse in the distribution of public services” as though that were something new. What a shame you didn’t call the real Protect Arizona Now; if you had, you would know that under ARS 46-140-C, it’s already a criminal misdemeanor for government workers to fail to file written reports on those committing (or even attempting to commit) welfare fraud.

We need government officials to enforce our current laws. This includes putting troops on the border, enforcing employer sanctions and deporting each and every illegal alien. We need government officials to honor their oath of office and to respect the people they are supposed to be representing.

KATHY MCKEE

Founder and chairman

Protect Arizona Now

Glendale, Ariz.

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