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Pinal Partnership Breakfast: Immigration and the law
Doris Fightmaster
Friday, July 9, 2010
Pinal Partnership Founder Sandie Smith asked two men who have dealt with immigration issues for quite a while to the June 11th Pinal Partnership Breakfast to debate the subject. SB 1070 supporter Tim La Sota is a former Special Assistant Deputy Maricopa County Attorney and has been very much a part of successful efforts to pass and defend human smuggling and employer sanctions legislation. He previously was in private practice specializing in administrative law, commercial litigation, and government relations. La Sota served six years on the Board of Goodwill of Central Arizona, including serving as Corporate Secretary. He graduated cum laude from the University of Colorado and ASU College of Law.
Not a supporter of SB 1070, Stephen Montoya is a graduate of Yale Law School and a partner with the law firm Montoya Jimenez, P.A. in Phoenix. Montoya focuses his practice on all aspects of federal civil rights litigation, much of which involves asserting claims against governmental entities and officials. These include discrimination, free speech, and police misconduct claims. He has won several seven-figure verdicts from both private and public entities in Arizona for the violation of civil rights and has had 19 published opinions, including two from the Supreme Court of the United States.
Montoya started his argument by stating that the State of Arizona has to obey the Federal laws concerning immigration and can’t override laws currently in place. Proponent La Sota stated that SB 1070 mirrors Federal law in many aspects, but added that the feds don’t do much about immigration and some people in Washington don’t want the laws to be enforced.
Stephen Montoya said he is currently representing two law enforcement officers who don’t want to administer the new law for a couple of reasons. They both fear that if an undocumented person has been vandalized, or any undocumented person has witnessed a crime, neither will call on the police nor cooperate with them if they know they are federal agents. Montoya said this is a bad law, using bad policy.
Tim La Sota stated that the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association endorsed SB 1070 and is frustrated with leadership. La Sota added that most of the police will enforce the law, unless it will harm an ongoing investigation.
Some facts that were shared with the small number in attendance was that under Federal law, it is illegal to be here as an undocumented alien but a third of these violators are people who got visas to go to school or work and have overstayed the date on the via. These are civil matters – or misdemeanors. It is a criminal act to put the wrong place of birth on your visa application or to sneak over the border either from Mexico or from Canada. Many times, in a normal police stop people will admit to being here illegally. The law does not take effect until July 29th.
According to Montoya, SB 1070 will be thrown out because it contradicts Federal Law. According to La Sota, in close cases, law enforcement will tread carefully, and stated that a provision about escalating penalties for not having a card has been removed from the law.
The next Pinal Partnership breakfast will be on July 9th at the Coolidge/Casa Grande Central Arizona College Campus.
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Doris Fightmaster
Stephen Montoya (left) and Tim La Sota shake hands after debate.
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