PHOENIX, ARIZONA. JUNE 10, 2010.  The problem with trying to be someone you’re not, as liberal Attorney General candidate Tom Horne is doing, is that veracity usually trumps phoniness.

Unable to compete with former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ successful record fighting illegal immigration Horne is downplaying his own deficiencies on the subject.   Indeed, at last week’s GOP debate Horne tried to avoid his support for amnesty but his past record can’t be ducked.

The public record makes it very clear that, just three years ago, Horne proposed his own plan for granting amnesty to illegal immigrants who graduate high school and pass a test.  Furthermore, Horne is on record opposing efforts to count the number of illegal immigrants in Arizona schools, and opposing efforts to overturning Plyler vs. Doe, the Supreme Court decision that ordered free public school educations for illegal immigrant students.

The Horne Amnesty Plan

In a February 17, 2007 article, the East Valley Tribune feature titled “Arizona taxpayers spend up to $1.2 billion annually to educate children of illegal immigrants”, Horne is on record with a plan of his own for granting amnesty and citizenships to illegal immigrants who graduate high school and take a test.  A portion of the Tribune article discussed Horne’s plan:

CITIZENSHIP WITH DIPLOMAS?

Horne has a plan that would reward high school graduates with citizenship. All they would have to do is pass a test.

“If there’s a standardized test that confirms it, that the student does well and learned, I would have no objection to that,” Horne said.

But Rodriguez said Horne’s proposal would create an incentive for immigrants to break the law while there are other people waiting in line to become citizens.

“They’re doing it the right way,” Rodriguez said. “Why should these people step in the front of the line and break another rule?”

The bottom line, Horne said, is that illegal immigration is the parents’ fault – not the children’s fault.

“Let’s fight the Supreme Court again,” Rodriguez said. “And let’s see what happens.” The article can still be read on the Tribune’s website here:  http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/article_42d1e9c7-6997-5863-930f-4af0c650d70f.html

Horne supported free education for illegal immigrant students

At a June 18, 2009 meeting of the Pachyderm Coalition, Horne told the group that he was opposed to overturning Plyler vs. Doe and stated that, “I am a proponent of education for illegal immigrant children,” and, “I would not let kids stay uneducated.”

Also, in 2009, Horne opposed legislation that would have Arizona schools ask students whether they were in the country legally.  This legislation would not have stopped giving tuition-free education to illegal immigrant students.  However, it would have set up a legal challenge to 1982 Supreme Court ruling Plyler vs. Doe.  This ruling said that all children have a constitutional right to a free, taxpayer-funded public education, even when those children are living in the United States illegally.  Since 1982, the court has become more conservative, and many legal analysts believe that today’s court might rule differently on the issue were the court presented with a similar case.

An article by Howard Fischer that appeared in the Arizona Daily Star article on April 28, 2009 (seehttp://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/precollegiate/article_513c62d6-3675-5680-9b49-d7e801b0c57b.html ) quoted Tom Horne opposing this bill.  Interestingly, Horne was aligning himself with Terry Goddard vs. Jan Brewer and Joe Arpaio, as both Brewer and Arpaio supported the bill.  A portion of the Arizona Daily Star article:“…a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decisionappears to make it illegal for school officials to ask. In a 5-4 decision, the justices overturned a Texas law that authorized school districts to refuse to enroll anyone who couldn’t prove legal residence.

But Dupnik said it may be time for Arizona to have a test case to put the issue back before the high court — to see if the current justices agree.

Dupnik has the backing of Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden and Joe Arpaio, his Maricopa County counterpart. And Gov. Jan Brewer said she sees no reason why youngsters shouldn’t be asked to prove they are U.S. citizens or legal residents.

“When I grew up, when I went to school, when I moved from Nevada to California, I had to bring my birth certificate to prove I was a citizen,” she said.

But Attorney General Terry Goddard said he doesn’t think schools have the expertise to determine legal status. And state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said he believes the federal government should just do a better job of protecting the border.

“But as long as kids are here, they should be in school,” he said. “You don’t want them on the street corner.”

Thomas has a track record of successfully defending illegal immigration crackdowns in our courts, including his successful efforts to prosecute illegal immigrants for conspiring to violate the state’s human-smuggling law and to defend Prop 200′s voter ID requirements and the employer-sanctions law, which he defended along with the Attorney General’s Office.

If elected Attorney General Thomas has pledged to expand that office’s prosecutions of illegal immigrants under the state’s human smuggling laws. The office is not currently pursuing such prosecutions.

During Thomas’ time in office, crime rates plummeted.  The 19 percent drop is more than twice the national rate of decline, in despite of an 11 percent increase in the county’s population during that time.  The illegal immigrant population has dropped by anywhere from 18 percent (Dept. of Homeland Security estimate) to 30 percent (Center for Immigration Studies estimate). Like the fall in crime rates, this dramatic decline in illegal immigration is far greater than the average in the rest of the nation.

Thomas has been endorsed by notable Arizona law enforcement leaders including Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh, Mohave County Attorney Matthew Smith, Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever, Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, the National Border Patrol Council Local 2544 and former Arizona Attorney General and NRA President Bob Corbin.  State Senator Jonathan Paton and Arizona Right to Life endorsed Thomas as well.

To schedule an interview please contact Jason Rose. For more information on Andrew Thomas, please go towww.ThomasForArizona.com.