The Arizona State Senator responsible for last year’s controversial “Papers, please” legislation continues to push forward anti-immigration laws despite the backlash from his previous attempt.  Republican Russell Pearce has proposed two more far-reaching measures to punish undocumented immigrants in his state.

In his first measure, children of undocumented immigrants would no longer be allowed to attend K-12 public schools.  The bill would ask school administrators to turn in families that did not provide citizenship papers.  That is not all.  The legislation would also prohibit undocumented immigrants from attending community colleges and universities.  Currently, students without citizenship or legal resident status are able to attend college, but they must pay out-of-state costs. The measure would also impose strict penalties on undocumented drivers — including seizing and selling their cars. Arizona already denies driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, but this bill would increase the penalties, including requiring a 30-day jail sentence for those driving without proof of legal residence.  Pearce’s other bill would deny citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.

The measures seem destined for constitutionality challenges and that may be their intended design.  The outlandish bills are likely being put forward to draw legal challenges in hopes that the Supreme Court might rule in the state’s favor. Pearce is reportedly planning on a run for the U.S. Congress in 2012, and this proposed legislation has certainly thrust his name into the national spotlight.  “This is clean-up,” Pearce told reporters. “All it does is do what the voters have passed in terms of no taxpayer dollars for illegals. It just ties it up.”  Pearce also called the influx of undocumented immigrants, an “invasion.”   “If you are ever going to stop this invasion, and it is an invasion, you have to quit rewarding people for breaking those laws,” he said.

Immigration advocates are horrified at the proposed legislation from Sen. Pearce.  “What [Pearce] wants to do is deter people through attrition so they will leave Arizona,” attorney Jose Penalosa, who works with Somos Republicanos, told the Huffington Post. “He’s attacking it at the heart of the issue, which is children. He’s kidnapping kids.”

Meanwhile, the “Papers, please” law is being challenged by the Obama administration in federal court.

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Shawna Forde, an anti-immigration extremist, was sentenced to death for killing a 9-year old girl and her father in an Arizona courtroom.  Shawna Forde was a member of the Minutemen, a group which patrols the southern border vigilante-style to detect illegal entry into the country.

On the day of the murder, Forde and two accomplices entered a home belonging to the Flores family, allegedly looking for a million-dollar drug stash in order to fund the Minutemen.  No drugs were found and Forde only made off with Gonzalez’s wedding ring and a few of the family’s other possessions.   During the raid, the minutemen shot Raul Flores and Gina Gonzales.  While Gonzales lay on the floor, pretending to be dead, Brisenia Flores, their nine-year old daughter, said, “Please don’t shoot me,” before being shot twice in the head.

Forde’s alleged accomplices, Albert Robert Gaxiola and Jason Eugene Bush, still await trial.

The Daily Beast’s Terry Greene Sterling talked to Shawna Forde in jail, who still believes she is innocent.  “I know in her mind,” Forde said of Gonzalez, “I am guilty and she hates me. I know her tragedy is extremely sad.” But on the other hand, she said “people shouldn’t deal drugs if they have kids.” (No drugs were found in the trailer.) Forde said in the interview that she “lost a daughter” and she knows from experience Gonzalez will feel pain “the rest of her life” and her “tragedy is extremely sad.” “I wish I could say I was sorry it happened,” Forde said. “I am not sorry on my behalf because I didn’t do it.”

Forde wanted to testify on her behalf but her attorneys convinced her otherwise.  She has a long history of ties to right-wing nativist groups like the tea party and the Federation for American Immigration Reform. All have since tried to distance themselves from her.  Despite her history with anti-immigration groups, the crime was not designated a hate crime.  Immigration advocates pointed out the connection between Forde’s radical beliefs and her crime.  Presente.org, a Latino activism group encouraged the media “to be socially responsible by reporting the linkages between Forde’s proven extremism and that of extremist groups she represents.”

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