Arizona Bill Would Require Hospitals Check Citizenship Status of Patients: Health care not sick care

In news from Arizona, Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill that would require doctors and nurses to check on the citizenship status of their patients. Under the bill, hospitals would be required—when admitting non-emergency cases— to confirm that a person seeking care is a U.S. citizen or in the country legally. The bill has sparked outrage in the medical profession.

No only is legislation not for the public, its not even made by them. -- Prison corporations and immigration law

Report: Prison Industry Helped Draft Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law

A new investigation has found the private prison industry played a key role in the drafting and passage of Arizona’s notorious anti-immigrant law. According to National Public Radio, the bill was formulated at a Washington, DC meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, last December. The group brings together state legislators and major corporations, including the nation’s largest private prison firm, the Correction Corporation of America, CCA. Attendees helped write the bill, gave it a name, and then voted to approve it. The bill’s eventual sponsor, Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, then brought it back to his home state. The ensuing months saw a frenzy of lobbying to enact the bill. According to NPR, thirty of the measure’s thirty-six co-sponsors received campaign donations from lobbyists working for CCA and two other major private prison companies. In an internal document last year, the CCA predicted that contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement would bring in "a significant portion of our revenues."

Poll: Latinos See Widespread Discrimination

A new poll shows nearly two-thirds of Latinos in the United States think they experience discrimination fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the number jumps to 70 percent for Latinos born abroad. Half of respondents say the US has become less welcoming to immigrants in the last five years, and over half say they’re worried they or their family members could be deported.

Arizona mentioned in US report to UN Human Rights

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer demanded Friday that a reference to the state's controversial immigration law be removed from a State Department report to the United Nations' human rights commissioner.

The U.S. included its legal challenge to the law on a list of ways the federal government is protecting human rights.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brewer says it is "downright offensive" that a state law would be included in the report, which was drafted as part of a UN review of human rights in all member nations every four years.

"The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a state of the United States to 'review' by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional," Brewer wrote.

Arizona's law generally requires police officer enforcing other laws to investigate the immigration status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants.

Florida AG unveils Anti Immigrant Measure

Florida Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill McCollum has proposed a new anti-immigrant measure that could be even harsher than the notorious Arizona law that was partially stricken down last month. McCollum’s bill would impose a twenty-day jail sentence for any immigrant who doesn’t carry documentation, as well as longer sentences for crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. On Wednesday, McCollum said his bill "goes one step further" than Arizona’s and predicted that Arizona will want to pass a similar measure.

Bill McCollum: "This is our own law, not theirs. And I think when we’re done passing this law, Arizona is going to want our law. They’re going to want to pass our law, because we’re better, we’re stronger, we’re tougher, and we’re fairer."