Mr. Smith opposed to breathing while brown

Posted by AzblueMeanie:

Anti-abortion jihadist Sen. Steve Smith (R-Maricopa) is also an anti-immigrant extremist who wants to fill the shoes of disgraced recalled Sen. Russell Pearce. Smith is bringing back anti-immigrant measures that the business community helped to kill in the last legislature. Will the business community step up again?

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Two anti-illegal immigration measures are back:

Sen. Steve Smith (R-Maricopa) is proposing laws that would require school districts to count the number of students who are in the country illegally and to require hospitals to report patients who cannot prove their lawful status.

The two bills were defeated last year, when the Senate also balked at legislation that supporters hoped would get the U.S. Supreme Court to ultimately discontinue the granting of automatic U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants.

* * *

One of the two measures that Smith submitted Monday, SB1444, would require the Department of Education to collect data from school districts on the population of students who cannot prove citizenship or lawful residence in the U.S.

The legislation also requires the education department to submit a report to the governor and lawmakers about the information it has collected.

Under the bill, the report must include research into on those students’ “adverse impact,” as well as an estimate of the cost of educating them.

Smith’s second anti-illegal immigration bill would require hospitals to “reasonably confirm” a patient’s legal status if he or she cannot show a valid health insurance.

The bill doesn’t preclude hospitals from providing care.

But SB1445 says a hospital admissions officer or representative must find out during the course of the treatment if the person is a citizen, a legal resident or lawfully present here.

The patient may show, among others, a military ID, driver’s license, or some valid non-immigration visa as proof of lawful status.

But if the hospital can’t verify a patient’s legal status, it must then immediately contact the local federal immigration office or a local law enforcement agency to report the incident.

Hospitals must also submit a report annually to the state health department to document compliance with the bill’s provision.

Also, the report must include the number of people who can’t show valid information and the number of times hospitals referred cases to immigration or law enforcers.

The health department must then collect the data and submit a report each year to the governor and lawmakers.

Yeah, that's what we want to do — turn teachers and emergency room doctors into immigration officers. And what about the "small government" conservatives blind opposition to any and all government regulation? This imposes an ill-conceived regulatory burden on schools and hospitals that will drive up the operation costs of both, not to mention subject them to legal liability. All because Mr. Smith is opposed to breathing while brown.

Smith recently wussed out of a senate primary fight against Cap'n Al Melvin in the new LD 11. Mr. Smith goes to House Arizona Capitol Times. That would have been one helluva crazy train primary. Neither one of these guys has any business serving in public office.

Of course, Arizona Republican Party Chairman Tom Morrissey called Smith one of the party’s “rising stars.” This would be the same Arizona Republican Party that just made disgraced recalled Sen. Russell Pearce its 1st vice chairman. Morrissey is just a figurehead, we all know who is really in charge.