Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima says he’s withdrawing a proposed resolution denouncing Arizona’s new immigration law after learning of amendments to the law, the Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting.
The mayor was quoted by the newspaper as saying he learned about the changes to the law on Monday. After reading a copy of the law as it now stands, Miyagishima said he no longer has concerns.
The law was narrowed to require local, county and state law enforcement officers to scrutinize the immigration status only of people who they stop, detain or arrest. It was also amended to disallow ethnicity as the sole reason to suspect someone of an immigration violation.
Miyagishima pointed to the new provision that says immigration must be checked only during a lawful stop and with reasonable suspicion.
“That’s a little stricter than what we have in effect, but it’s essentially the same,” the newspaper quoted Miyagishima as saying. “That wasn’t something I read in the original bill. The House bill addressed a lot of my concerns.”
“Now that I have this, I’m actually OK with it,” the newspaper quoted the mayor as saying.
Miyagishima had originally proposed a resolution denouncing the new law.
Meanwhile, the New York Times ran a profile today of New Mexico and Arizona as two states “side by side, but divided over immigration.” It’s worth a read. Click here to do so.