| 2 | Everyone is aware of SB 1070. Passed by the legislature this year, the bill duplicates the federal law in order to give state law enforcement the right to arrest and detain illegal immigrants and report them to ICE. I assume you have heard all the arguments pro and con. Please let me know how you feel. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 3 | Senator Pearce, the author of SB 1070, is preparing to file a bill to prevent the state from issuing birth certificates to “anchor babies.” Anchor babies are children born in the U.S. to citizens of other countries, regardless of whether the mother is here legally or not. Sen. Pearce believes the current law of allowing anchor babies to receive U.S. citizenship encourages the violation of U.S. immigration law. Because the parents of such children are “not subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States (as per the 14th Amendment), the children are therefore not entitled to citizenship. Opponents believe we should not punish the children, who once they are born, become subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 4 | Congress has passed and the President has signed a significant health care reform package, commonly known as “Obamacare.” There is a move to repeal the act. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 5 | I am presently chairing a sentencing reform committee to re-evaluate our state’s mandatory sentencing structure. Our current laws provide for mandatory consecutive sentences for each count for someone possessing child pornography. While I believe this is appropriate for those who create, sell or publish child porn, the current law imprisons a mere possessor of child porn more harshly than someone who rapes a child. A child rapist would receive up to 35 years. This is incongruous to me. One example is Mr. Morton Berger. Mr. Berger was a 50 year old high school teacher in Glendale who had once been nominated for “Teacher of the Year.” Mr. Berger had no prior felonies and no prior contacts with law enforcement. However, it was discovered that at his home, he had downloaded child porn on his home computer. Mr. Berger was convicted on 20 counts of possession of child porn, and received 20 ten year sentences, to be served consecutively, in other words, a 200 year sentence. I would be interested to learn what you believe is an appropriate sentence for Mr. Berger. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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