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Immigration Initiative Enters Circulation

Undocumented Immigrants. Requires State Law
Enforcement Officers to Enforce Federal Immigration Law.
Denies Driver's Licenses to Undocumented Immigrants. Initiative Statute

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced that the proponents of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for their measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponents and to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponents and to county elections officials, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS. REQUIRES STATE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS TO ENFORCE FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAW. DENIES DRIVER’S LICENSES TO UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Requires state and local law enforcement to comply with direction from federal immigration authorities for holding and transferring undocumented immigrants arrested by law enforcement officials. Requires commitment for law enforcement agencies to perform federal immigration functions. Denies driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. Prohibits law enforcement from justifying arrests solely because an individual over fifteen was driving without a license. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Increased state and local law enforcement costs, potentially reaching several millions of dollars annually, for detaining persons suspected of being unlawfully present in the U.S. and for complying with an agreement required by this measure between the state and the federal government. Potential unknown savings to state and local governments to the extent that the deportation of unlawfully present criminals prevents them from reentering the criminal justice system. (11-0094.)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1563 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 11-0094.

The proponents for this measure, Ted Hilton, Tirso Del Junco and Bill Siler, must collect signatures of 504,760 registered voters – the number equal to five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election – in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponents have 150 days to circulate petitions for this measure, meaning the signatures must be collected by June 28, 2012.

The initiative proponents can be reached at P.O. Box 9985, San Diego, California 92189. No phone number was provided.

To sign up for regular ballot measure updates via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, go to www.sos.ca.gov/multimedia.

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