ERIC SAGARA

Activists here are opposing a ballot initiative that would limit the rights of illegal immigrants in Arizona.
Protect Arizona Now is a "mean-spirited" initiative that would harm public health and safety, said Isabel Garcia, founder of Coalición de Derechos Humanos.

She said opponents of the initiative plan legal challenges and public awareness campaigns to defeat the measure on the November ballot.

The campaign told The Associated Press on Wednesday it submitted 190,887 voter signatures to the Secretary of State's Office, which has until early August to verify whether the filing met the requirement for 122,612 valid signatures. Yesterday was the filing deadline.

"We're launching an educational campaign to bring truth to this issue," Garcia said. "It doesn't bring a solution to any of the problems that plague the state or the country."

The measure would impose identification requirements on voters and applicants for some government services and require state and local government employees to report immigration violations by applicants for services, the AP reported.

"Governments on all levels - local, state and federal - should hang their heads in shame to make the people of Arizona go through this ordeal because governments arrogantly refuse to do their duties," Kathy McKee, chairwoman of the Protect Arizona Now campaign, said in an AP interview.

McKee believes that the measure will qualify, "barring a high rate of invalid signatures." Opponents, who call the initiative divisive and unnecessary, predict the petition drive will fall short.

Lawyers in Phoenix were developing strategies to legally oppose the bill, Garcia told the Tucson Citizen.

Garcia is appealing to moderate Republicans here and nationally to oppose the bill.

"We're hoping that they come forward with some kind of resource and action so that we can denounce it," she said.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform and other groups have spent more than $400,000 for paid circulators to collect signatures, according to the AP.

FAIR recently released a report saying illegal immigrants cost Arizona taxpayers about $1.3 billion a year in education, incarceration and health-care costs.

Alexis Mazón, an attorney representing opponents of the measure, disputed the study's findings.

Illegal immigrants "take only a small fraction of the uncompensated health care," she said. "Less than 25 percent of those bills are owed by immigrants. That's a big problem that needs to be addressed, but it's not the responsibility of migrants."

The initiative would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and proof of identification to cast ballots at polling places. The identification requirement would not apply to voters casting early ballots by mail, according to AP.

It also would require proof of identification and eligibility for applicants for nonfederally mandated social services such as welfare.

In addition, it would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to four months in jail for a state or local government employee to fail to report immigration violations by applicants for government services that are not federally required.

The federal government requires proof of U.S. citizenship for welfare only if state agencies suspect an applicant is an illegal immigrant.