The Protect Arizona Now (PAN) initiative (designated Proposition 200) is a law passed November 2, 2004 by the voters of the U.S. state of Arizona. It denies voting and state services to illegal aliens by requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote, proof of identity when voting, and proof of eligibility for non-federally mandated benefits. Opponents have criticized it as being anti-immigrant, and consider it to be reminiscent of California's 1994Proposition 187, which was passed by the electorate but was subsequently voided by U.S.federal courts.
On July 5, 2004, PAN submitted 190,887 signatures to the Arizona Secretary of State's office, surprising critics who had believed organizers would not be able to garner enough signatures before the deadline. The majority of those signatures were gathered in an independent effort underwritten by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). A counter-organization, the Statue of Liberty Coalition, was formed to block PAN, claiming the initiative is racist and will target Latinocivil rights.
Despite the claims that the initiative was racist or anti-Latino, exit polls found that 47% of Latino voters voted in favor of the initiative.
The Chairwoman of PAN is Kathy McKee. The PAN National Advisory Board is chaired by Dr. Virginia Abernethy, and includes Dr. David Pimentel and Marvin Gregory.
Since the petitions were turned into the ArizonaSecretary of State on July 1, opponents of the ballot measure have launched a campaign of disinformation, aimed at distorting the language and objectives of Proposition 200, and impugning the motives of the people behind the initiative.
Large-scale illegal immigration is an important issue in Arizona and much of the rest of the nation, and it is crucial that the facts about Proposition 200 be reported accurately to the voters.
To protect the public against fraud and corruption in public services, the issuing agency must have verified the immigration status of the cardholder.
Authors of the ballot measure, the ProtectArizonaNow committee, wrote it because of a serious concern for lax voter registration and voting procedures and concerns that public services to immigrants from neighboring Mexico, many of whom are illegal immigrants, were too costly.
On July 5, 2004, ProtectArizonaNOW's Chairman, Kathy McKee, pursuant to Arizona law, submitted 190,887 signatures to the ArizonaSecretary of State's office, surprising critics who had believed organizers would not be able to garner enough signatures before the deadline.
For now, it seems safe as it was just upheld by U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver who wrote that the challengers "have not shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits, the balance of hardships favor the defendants and the public interest would not be advanced by granting the injunction."[4]
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