Arizona Senate Rejects 5 Anti Immigration Bills Including Birthright Citizenship Legislation

Finally some relatively good news coming out of Arizona, last night the State Senate struck down 5 pieces of anti immigration legislation.

The Arizona Republic's  Alia Beard Rau has the full story here:

Arizona won't be leading a national push for the U.S. Supreme Court to strip citizenship status from children of illegal immigrants - at least not this year.  The state Senate voted down a package of birthright-citizenship bills, with Republicans split over the measures and Democrats opposed.

The other types of legislation struck down would have done the following:

1. Banned illegal immigrants from state universities.

2. Made it a crime for illegal immigrants to drive a vehicle in Arizona.

3. Required school districts to check the legal status of students.

4. Required hospitals to check the legal status of patients.

Perhaps most importantly, over and over legislators from both parties voiced their concerns that passing anti-immigrant legislation would be damaging for the economy and small businesses that operated in Arizona:

Sen. Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, said the state should be focused on its budget and not on a divisive issue that puts Arizona in a bad light. He said he didn't believe the bills would accomplish their larger goal.

Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, said the bills would be bad for business. "As we continue to try and improve Arizona's economy, to try and bring in new businesses to the state of Arizona, these types of legislation are not helping us move the economy forward," Gallardo said.

Consideration for the economic impact of passing more anti-immigrant legislation weighed heavily on the emotionally charged debate. It is unclear whether or not these anti immigrant pieces of legislation will be added as amendments to other legislation that is moving forward.