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AG rejects illegal immigration proposal again, responds to impartiality allegations Thursday, May 1, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - For the second time, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel on Wednesday rejected the name and title of a proposed ballot initiative that would make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to receive public benefits. McDaniel cited remaining ambiguities in the text of the measure and the "length and complexity" of the proposed ballot title, which he said would make the measure vulnerable to a court challenge. The chairman of Secure Arkansas, the group pushing the proposed initiated act, said the proposal would be revised and resubmitted. The language of the initiative must get McDaniel's approval before supporters can begin gathering the required 61,974 signatures needed to place it before voters in November. Time is running out for Secure Arkansas. The signatures must be submitted by July 7. "I'm concerned but I'm still very optimistic," Secure Arkansas chairman Jeannie Burlsworth said. "I think we can gather the signatures and Arkansas voters, I think, are going to get a chance to vote on this if all goes well, and then we'll see how Arkansas really feels." The proposed initiated act would require citizenship or an alternate legal status to be verified or expressed before Arkansans over 13 could receive public benefits, excluding emergency medical care, organ transplants, disaster relief, treatment of disease, prenatal care, soup kitchens, crisis counseling and short-term shelters. Burlsworth said she would like to have the measure approved in time to collect signatures during the primary election on May 20. "McDaniel said that if we resubmit it, he would not go another full 10 days before he rendered another decision on it," Burlsworth said. "That is not accurate," the attorney general said. McDaniel said he has advised the group several times to hire an attorney to assist in the proposal's drafting, which could speed up its approval. McDaniel said he told the group's lobbyist that "one of the options that I had available to me was to attempt to substitute language that might be suitable. "However, because Mrs. Burlsworth and the group had publicly challenged my objectivity and had wrongfully alleged that I had some political bias, which I do not, I felt uncomfortable with substituting any language," McDaniel said. Keep Arkansas Legal, a group that supports Secure Arkansas' proposal, questioned McDaniel's impartiality last week because he has received campaign donations from people affiliated with an organization that opposes the measure. "I'm not sure that (McDaniel) is going to be impartial at all," Burlsworth said last week. McDaniel said Wednesday he would not want to substitute language only to have Secure Arkansas allege that the language did not reflect its actual intent. McDaniel said he contacted the group's lobbyist and said he would try to move as quickly as he could, but made no promises, adding that if they were in a hurry to get the complex proposal's name and ballot title certified, they should have submitted it early in the year. McDaniel said he might try to expedite a decision on the proposal if it is resubmitted, "if for no other reason than to avoid them accusing me of trying to slow play them." |
