PHOENIX — Russell Pearce, the sponsor of Arizona’s 2010 comprehensive and controversial law about illegal immigration, died Thursday at his home at age 75.
The Mesa Republican gained international attention with his Senate Bill 1070, dubbed the Fair and Legal Employment Act, which was designed to give the state a role in identifying and detaining those not in this country legally.
That included giving local police the power to charge migrants with violating state laws for seeking work in Arizona without being in this country legally and failing to carry federally issued registration cards. It also would have allowed police to make warrantless arrests if there is “probable cause” a person committed an office that makes them removable from the country under federal law.
