Prosecutors in Arizona’s border counties have long complained of having no consequential option for charging people who engage in transportation of undocumented non-U.S. citizens (UNCs), but that could substantially change if Senate Bill 1379 is enacted.
It is currently only a Class 1 misdemeanor under Arizona Revised Statute 13-2929 if a person “unlawfully transports, moves, conceals, harbors or shields undocumented immigrants.” A Class 1 misdemeanor conviction provides for a jail (not prison) sentence of no more than six months, and in many courts it can take that long just to get a case to trial.
But SB1379 would reclassify human smuggling transportation activities involving one UNC as a Class 6 felony, making prison time an option. Felony convictions also trigger a loss of many civil rights, including the right to possess or use a firearm.
In addition, the bill would allow state and county prosecutors to charge those involved in the transportation of 2 or more UNCs with a Class 4 felony. This significantly changes the current group prosecution option under ARS 13-2929, which requires at least 10 UNCs to be in a vehicle in order to charge as a Class 6 felony.
SB1379 even redefines who can be charged under state law with engaging in human smuggling transportation. Currently a person must already be in violation of another “criminal offense” in order to be charged under ARS 13-2929. The bill rewords that prerequisite to a violation of a criminal “law or statute.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB1379 on Thursday. It is waiting to clear the Senate Rules Committee next.
Both the House Health and Human Services Committee and the House Appropriations Committee approved a bill to ensure that Arizona’s kinship families, extended families caring for children that would otherwise face placement in the foster care system, have the financial means to take care of their children. Kinship families care for 46 percent of the children in the Department of Child Safety (DCS) system, yet receive $75 a month currently if they remain unlicensed while the average foster family receives over $700 a month irrespective of income. HB2274 would raise that amount to $300, appropriating $24.2 million from the state’s general fund next year. Kinship families wouldn’t be required to submit an application to receive their stipend.
State Representative Jeff Weninger (R-Chandler) introduced HB2274 in response to Governor Doug Ducey’s declaration to increase foster care family resources in his State of the State address last month. Ducey insisted that kinship families should receive the same help as any other family willing to care for a child.
“It can be better for the child, and often, cheaper for the state because historically, they haven’t been treated as foster families. More than 6,000 children in Arizona live in these homes, all the evidence you need that you can’t put a price tag on love,” said Ducey. “So moving forward, these loving extended family members should have the same resources as any other foster family. We’ll make sure of that this year.”
On Ducey’s point of saving the state money: the governor’s office reported during Wednesday’s House Appropriations meeting that the average cost of congregate care was $150 daily, or $5,000 a month.
Ducey applauded the two committees’ bipartisan passage of HB2274 in a press release, noting that kinship families would further receive a helping hand from the Department of Child Safety (DCS). DCS pledged to review its procedures to expedite kinship caregiver licensing. A change from DCS would enable kinship families to receive as much financial support as other foster families.
Only State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) voted against the bill, in the House Appropriations Committee. State Representative Gail Griffin (R-Hereford) passed on her vote.
The stipend would offset the effects families feel from the current inflation plaguing the Biden Administration.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On Wednesday, the House Government and Elections Committee narrowly approved a bill from State Representative Joseph Chaplik (R-Scottsdale) prohibiting government entities or schools from requiring minors to wear a mask without the express parental consent. All Democrats voted against HB2616, ensuring Republicans edged out a narrow 7-6 victory.
“I believe parents should make decisions for their children, not the government,” asserted Chaplik. “The states of Florida and Virginia, with bipartisan support, have passed this similar policy. I will continue to stand for freedom in Arizona for our constituents.”
HB2616 would’ve had greater reach than government and K-12 education: the original bill also prohibited mask mandates in private businesses for both adults and for minors, unless the business had express parental consent for the child to wear one. An approved amendment to HB2616 from State Representative John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) struck those additional provisions.
During the committee hearing, Chaplik explained that obtaining consent was up to the schools. When State Representative Sarah Liguori (D-Phoenix) expressed confusion as to whether schools would be required to obtain written consent for a child that showed up to school wearing a mask, Chaplik clarified that the child arriving to school in a mask was sufficient parental consent.
Liguori lambasted her colleagues for “buying into a political narrative.” She claimed that school districts with mask mandates have opt-out options for parents. That is incorrect. Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), for one, doesn’t mention the option to not wear a mask on school property.
“I hate to get caught up in the politics of the masks, which I believe was intentionally designed as an illusion but its even more of a fantasy to think we as legislators know more than the experts who have trained their entire lives in these fields and have studied the science and data on this day in and day out for the past two years,” said Liguori.
State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) challenged Liguori’s assertion that the experts were infallible and that the masks were a political issue. Hoffman reminded the committee of the CDC’s track record of changing their guidelines and goalposts constantly.
“In reality, the science is on the side that kids should not be forced to wear masks,” said Hoffman. “This is not a political argument, it’s an actual medical science argument. There’s countless medical studies to support this, and there are countless health professionals at the highest levels — especially medical doctors, not just public health professionals because there’s a very big difference between an actual medical doctor and a public health professional — they support this.”
On Tuesday, the American Federation for Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten pushed back in an interview with MSNBC against the beginning trend to drop mask mandates in schools. Weingarten admitted that masks are not only intolerable but an impediment to learning.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has also pushed back, arguing in an interview with Reuters this week that “now is not the moment” to drop mask mandates.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A Senate bill to prohibit health care professionals from providing or referring gender transition procedures to children, the Arizona’s Children Deserve Help Not Harm Act, inspired a wide variety of testimony during Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, though it ultimately failed to pass. State Senator Tyler Pace (R-Mesa) voted with committee Democrats to kill the bill. Pace argued that parents should have the right to make these kinds of medical decisions for their children.
The bill, introduced by State Senator Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert), would’ve included children born with medically verifiable sex development disorders such as ambiguous external biological sex characteristics, abnormal sex chromosome structure, or abnormal sex steroid hormone production or action; children seeking treatment for infection, injury, disease, or disorders caused or exacerbated by a gender transition procedure; and children requiring procedures due to physical disorder, injury, or illness that would place them in imminent danger of death or bodily function impairment unless surgery is performed.
One of the main opponents of the bill that Pace sided with when gave his “no” vote was Gilbert resident Andi Young, who identified herself as the parent of a transgender child and budding licensed mental health professional for children. She neglected to mention that she’s been the co-chair for the Phoenix chapter of the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) for over a year now, the local plant of a national organization pushing LGBTQ ideologies and activism onto children. Young began working with GLSEN Phoenix as their community editor in May 2019 according to her LinkedIn, carrying out responsibilities such as pushing LGBTQ content in schools through educators, and lobbying for LGBTQ legislation at the Arizona State Capitol. Our reporters checked with the secretary of state’s office: although Young claims to be a lobbyist, she wasn’t registered as of press time. Young also didn’t identify herself as a lobbyist or as a member of GLSEN Phoenix on the bill’s page documenting community supporters and opponents.
AZ Free News reported last December that GLSEN Phoenix was advising educators to incorporate “secret libraries” in their classrooms to smuggle in LGBTQ and social justice curriculum. GLSEN is also behind the Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) clubs popping up throughout K-12 schools; some schools call their GSA by other names, like “Student Alliance For Equality,” or “SAFE” clubs.
During her testimony to the senate committee, Young explained that she encouraged her daughter to transition after her daughter began to be withdrawn, depressed, and socially isolated around puberty and that no amount of therapy, support groups, or psychiatric medications helped. Based on the timeline of Young’s GLSEN involvement, it is unclear the extent of influence GLSEN and Young’s work had on her daughter.
Young asserted to the committee that a doctor who specialized in transgender youth told Young that they should give their daughter “gender-affirming medical treatment.” Young testified that her daughter’s mental condition improved over the last five months due to “gender-affirming medications.”
“I am terrified of what will happen to my child if they are denied this care that is so critical to their well-being,” said Young. “My child was assigned female at birth but they identify as trans-masculine but nonbinary. Gender is a spectrum, it’s not a one or the other. They’re on the male-leaning side of the gender spectrum.”
On the other side of the argument against the bill stood a transgender adult, who argued that children lacked the capacity to make these life-altering medical decisions. That transgender woman, Jadis Argiope, expressed gratitude that he was able to transition when he was an adult.
“We’re talking about the disturbing practice of putting kids through cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, irreversible surgeries, all before they can even drink, vote, or get a credit card,” said Argiope. “And now, we know we can’t trust their judgment or self-perception because that used to be us. Yet when it comes to gender identity, we’re told to trust them unwaveringly. I urge you all: let’s be responsible and give these kids the time to grow up the best way they can for themselves and not stand by as psychotic doctors stand by and salivate over these kids and misguided suckers of parents/legal guardians who would sign away their rights.”
Argiope shared that he had removed his own testicles due to his gender dysphoria, a decision that made headlines nearly a decade ago. He argued that his condition has to do with body dysmorphia, and that intervening too early in a child’s life with affirmation and validation of their feelings would only harm them. Argiope said that it was unfashionable to give pushback to these kids, especially in the LGBTQ communities, but that it would be necessary.
“I had the agency as an adult to make this decision. As a child I wouldn’t have,” said Argiope. “Honestly a lot of this is about body dysmorphia. And I realize there’s a disconnect. There’s a huge disconnect between the brain and the body, and there could be many reasons for this. And not all dysphoria is because youre transgender. Like I said most kids who experience dysmorphia, 85 percent of those kids outgrow it and grow to be healthy, happy gay lesbians and adults.”
Statute determines that SB1138 would’ve applied to podiatrists, chiropractors, dentists, medical physicians and surgeons, naturopathic physicians, nurses, dispensing opticians, optometrists, osteopathic physicians and surgeons, pharmacists, physical therapists, psychologists, veterinarians, physician assistants, radiologic technologists, homeopathic physicians, behavioral health professionals, occupational therapists, respiratory therapists, acupuncturists, athletic trainers, massage therapists, nursing care institution administrators, assisted living facilities managers, midwifes, and audiologists and speech pathologists.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
NFL Alumni Association chaplain and Phoenix-based pastor Drew Anderson addressed the Senate Education Committee in favor of a bill to expand Arizona’s school choice system, SB1657, calling school choice the “civil rights movement of our era” and condemning the modern K-12 public school system as “educational slavery.” He insisted that the current education system fails the black and brown community.
“There is nothing more important to humanity right now than school choice,” said Anderson. “In 1865, it was an unpopular decision for a lot of legislators to get together to end a system that was as American as apple pie,” said Anderson. “But here we are in 2022, asking a group of legislators once again to make an unpopular decision, which is to end educational slavery.”
SB1657 would expand eligibility for Arizona’s school choice system, the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, by allowing students with: disabilities identified by public school systems in other states; a parent that is a veteran, first responder, or full-time health professional; income that qualifies for federal free and reduced-price lunch programs; a household that receives benefits from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or Section 8 Public Housing Assistance; participation in federal Title I services for low-income students under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA); residence in the attendance boundary of a school that qualifies for schoolwide Title I Program funding under ESSA or whose governing board submitted a plan to the School Facilities Oversight Board within the last two years requesting additional construction or funding due to exceeding existing capacity; or current or past participation in the Education Recovery Benefit Program, Open for Learning Recovery Benefit Program, or any successor state grant program.
The Senate Education Committee passed the bill along party lines, 5-3. Even Anderson’s testimony on how the current education system fails the children of his community, and how school choice initiatives helped him escape a life of crime, poverty, and even early death wasn’t enough to persuade the three committee Democrats.
State Senator Paul Boyer (R-Glendale), the bill’s sponsor, explained that voters overwhelmingly showed bipartisan support for school choice expansion.
“I just have to mention this — and I don’t normally talk about voters in the chamber — but it’s been brought up twice now,” stated Boyer. “I have a poll from last year, Signal, considered the most accurate pollster by the New York Times. Once voters heard the description of this particular bill last year, they supported this. Seventy percent support. That was last year. This year, again when the particulars of this program were described, 74 percent. It’s an increase of four percent just this year, with strong majorities among Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. This is simply what the public wants and what the parents want.”
During his testimony, Anderson challenged the rhetoric that systems needed to end and funding needed to increase or be left untouched, pointing out that the current system of public funding trapping and hurting minority children was steeped in financial self-interest. He said that the school-to-prison pipeline was the elephant in the room.
“We have school districts who sit and complain about losing funding while all these black and brown kids are going to prison. Nobody complains about public funds going to private prisons to incarcerate black souls, but everybody wants to complain about public funds going to educate black minds,” asserted Anderson. “Why is it okay for public dollars to go to private prisons, but it’s not okay for public dollars to go to private schools?”
Anderson argued further that the $31,000 spent by the state on each prisoner could be mitigated by allowing the $15,000 it would take to offer a student school choice.
“We need a lifeline in the black community right now,” said Anderson. “In 1864 we were chained to plantations, but in 2022 we’re chained to failing schools.”
Boyer asked if Anderson had personally seen ESAs help minority children. Anderson revealed that he had, and was also one of those children who benefited from school choice. The pastor described how he was able to avoid being recruited for selling crack cocaine because he received a scholarship to attend an elite private school in Chicago, Illinois — one that his mother couldn’t dream of affording, though she worked three jobs. Anderson recounted how that education set him on a path to playing for the NFL and eventually earning enough money to ensure his mother didn’t have to work again. Anderson added that of his five childhood friends, three were in prison and two were dead by the time he graduated high school.
“I’m not here because of what I heard. I’m here because of what an ESA did for me,” explained Anderson. “We talk all the time about funds, we talk all the time about test scores. You know what we need to talk about? These private schools that are offering our black and brown kids a 98 percent graduation rate and a 90 percent continuation rate. I’m not worried about an AzMerit score. To hell with that! What I’m worried about is, if I send my kid to Brophy [Preparatory School], 98 percent of those kids are graduating. If I send my kid to Brophy, 90-odd percent of those kids are going to college. Men lie, women lie, but numbers don’t.”
Senator Theresa Hatathalie (D-Coal Mine Canyon) expressed concern that there weren’t accountability measures for the academic progress of ESA students. Boyer reiterated what Anderson pointed out: that private schools have better graduation rates and other indicators of success than public schools have shown.
Anderson brought up data that the graduation rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were higher for students coming from private schools than those from public schools. He said that it wasn’t just about the success metrics, but safety. Anderson described how, just that morning, he witnessed eight black elementary school children exposing themselves to danger because they had to walk to their public school in South Phoenix before daybreak.
“If you’re going to a school where 98 percent of the people are graduating, there’s no other proof, there’s no other test you could give somebody to say the school is succeeding,” said Anderson. “I’ve never watched the news and it says, ‘Harvard graduates rob Circle K, details at six.’ That’s not what you see. But what you do see is, ‘South Mountain High School dropout mugs lady, details at six.’ So instead of test scores, why don’t we worry about graduation rates and continuation rates? If black and brown kids are going to college, that means they’re not going to penitentiaries.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Shiry Sapir, a mother of three who decided to run for public office after enduring the current state of K-12 schools in Arizona, became the first Clean Elections candidate for this year.
Sapir’s filing stands as one of the earliest submissions for any candidate, and reportedly the earliest for an Arizona Republican running for a statewide office. A Clean Elections qualification requires candidates don’t receive special interest or high-dollar contributions; for Sapir’s campaign, she had to raise $2,500 worth of $5 contributions. In addition to the clout, candidates may access the Citizens Clean Elections Fund.
?CAMPAIGN ALERT: Shiry is officially the first state-wide Republican candidate to submit all required petition signatures & $5 donations for clean election funds while far exceeding all goals!
Lookout 2022 – parents are out in full force! ????
Sapir’s qualification occurred despite Secretary of State Katie Hobbs shutting down the E-Qual system, which allows candidates the easier option of collecting contributions electronically.
In the primaries for the superintendent’s seat, Sapir would be contending with the likes of State Representative Michelle Udall (R-Mesa), who stands firm with the GOP on masking, vaccinations, and critical race theory, but departs on unfettered school choice.
Sapir announced her campaign for state superintendent last July. Since then, she’s earned the endorsements of State Representative and congressional candidate Walt Blackman (R-Snowflake); Andy Biggs’ wife, Cindy Biggs; Arizona Corporate Commission (ACC) Commissioner Jim O’Connor; and the AZ Coalition for Medical Freedom.
Incumbent Superintendent Kathy Hoffman ran her initial campaign as a Clean Elections candidate, and pledged last August to do the same this go around.
I’m honored to have been elected as a Clean Elections candidate & will continue to run clean in my re-election campaign.
Now, I need your help in collecting $5 contributions from 1500 AZ voters to qualify for state funding.
I am thrilled that nearly 1,000 voters have donated to my Clean Elections ? Just $5 from you could mean quality public education for ALL Arizona students ?Please support this vision and my campaign for Superintendent by making a $5 donation today +RT! https://t.co/ORF7lWxYrCpic.twitter.com/ob5ze87NTN
Sapir appeared before the House Education Committee last month to advocate for HB2495, citing the incident in Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) reported on by AZ Free News, in which two English teachers assigned a book laden with pornographic and other explicit material, “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.”
“To me, this has nothing to do with homosexuality. It really doesn’t. I have nothing against homosexuality. I just don’t want any kind of sexuality coming in front of minors,” said Sapir.
State Representative Daniel Hernandez (D-Tucson) appeared flustered by Sapir’s stance and testimony, offering a backhanded compliment that Sapir would trust State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) because he was “obviously an expert in this [issue],” eliciting a chiding response from Udall, the committee chair. Hernandez then asked Sapir if she’s ever “had to defend her straight-ness as a person.” Udall intervened again, deeming Hernandez’s question irrelevant to the bill.
The House passed that bill that spurred Sapir’s back-and-forth with Hernandez last week.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
