Republican Anti-migrant initiative backed in Arizona
Poll: 74% of Arizonans favor denying benefits, services .An anti-illegal immigration measure would deny public benefits to undocumented immigrants. The initiative does not specify exactly which benefits would be affected, but opponents say they could range from health care provided by the state, to unemployment benefits, to municipal garbage collection. The debate over the measure leading up to the election is expected to focus largely on which benefits might be denied to undocumented workers and how much money could be saved. The measure would also make it a crime for state and local government workers to fail to alert immigration authorities of suspected undocumented immigrants who ask for public benefits. Workers currently face no such criminal sanctions. [more]