Arizona voters approved it and the U.S. Department of Justice gave it a
green light, but opponents of Proposition 200 aren't ready to give up
the fight.
A coalition of community groups is vowing to continue battling a law
they consider discriminatory toward immigrants, Hispanics and other
people of color.
"The fight ain't over till we win," Clarence Boykins of the NAACP said
Monday at a Tucson press conference.
The coalition's first objective is to persuade the Department of Justice
to reverse a preliminary decision that the proposition does not harm
minority voting rights.
The Jan. 24 decision, issued by the voting section of the department's
Civil Rights Division, made Arizona the first state to require proof of
citizenship for voter registration. It also requires voters to show
identification before casting a ballot.
Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias accused the department of ignoring
the fact that few if any cases of voting by noncitizens in Arizona can
be confirmed. Without being able to prove that, the District 5 Democrat
said, "what is this really about?"
Elias predicted the ID requirement invites racial profiling at polling
places and that Hispanics and Indians would be treated differently from
other voters.
Potentially even more far-reaching is the impact the
proof-of-citizenship requirement would have on grass-roots voter
registration drives organized by activists, civic organizations and
political parties.
"Clipboard registration is going to go out the window," Elias said.
Proposition 200 was passed with almost 56 percent of the Arizona vote on
Nov. 2, though it failed by nearly 4 1/2 percent in predominantly
Democratic Pima County. After a federal judge in Tucson refused to stop
the state from enforcing provisions that require proof of legal presence
in the United States to qualify for certain "public benefits," derailing
the voting provisions was among the last options for proposition
opponents.
Many never believed those provisions would pass muster in court or with
the Justice Department, which has veto power over election laws in
states like Arizona where there is a history of discrimination. Last
August, for example, U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, a Tucson Republican, predicted
the proposition would "run afoul of the Voting Rights Act" and "most
likely be overturned."
Among the groups continuing the battle against the proposition are the
American Friends Service Committee, the League of Women Voters, Los
Adelitas and the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos/Alianza Indigena Sin
Fronteras.
"Many people are beginning to realize the incredible impact this is
going to have on our community," said Isabel Garcia of Derechos Humanos.
"This is not the end of it."
Joseph Rich, the Justice Department official who issued the decision,
could not be reached late Monday.
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©The Arizona Daily Star, 2004
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