PHOENIX – Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a slew of legislation yesterday on issues including the confiscation of firearms, the sale of human eggs, two bills on abortion and trespassing by illegal immigrants.
Among the legislation vetoed by Napolitano was the controversial SB 1157, which gives local law enforcement the authority to arrest illegal immigrants for trespassing.
Sen. Barbara Leff, R-Paradise Valley, said she was disappointed with Napolitano’s decision to veto her legislation. She said her bill was designed to give police tools.
“”So I think anybody whose community has a drop house that has been raided … when police let those people go, you can send a thank-you note to the governor; because of her veto, these people will be running through your neighborhood,”” Leff said.
Leff clarified her previous statements that her legislation has the support of the local law-enforcement community. She said the rank-and-file members of law enforcement support her legislation, even if sheriffs and police chiefs across the state do not.
Last week, Napolitano’s office released more than a dozen letters from local law enforcement agencies urging her to veto the legislation. She received letters from the county sheriffs in Yuma, Pinal, Pima and Santa Cruz counties.
In her veto letter to Senate President Ken Bennett, Napolitano said the bill would be unlikely to deter illegal immigrants and could face legal challenges.
“”I cannot agree with the basic premise of this bill that all persons here in violation of … (a federal law) should automatically be deemed criminal trespassers under state law,”” Napolitano stated.
Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, said the failed measure would have forced some police agencies to enforce immigration law.
“”You have also got police chiefs, apparently, that don’t want to enforce the law, and I didn’t know they got a choice in which laws they got to enforce, I thought they had to enforce all the laws,”” said Gould of the letters submitted to the governor by law enforcement.
Napolitano vetoed two bills on abortion yesterday, HB 2666 and SB 1325.
HB 2666, which would have required that written parental consent authorizing a physician to perform an abortion on the pregnant minor be notarized, was sent to the governor for her approval on Wednesday. Current law requires written parental consent, but the author of the legislation said some minors have circumvented the law that requires parental consent for a minor to have an abortion.
SB 1325 would have prohibited state or local government from using state funds to provide health care insurance that covers most abortions.
In her veto of SB 1325, the governor said the law was “”far too restrictive”” in its narrow definition of exceptions. Abortions could be covered by the health insurance only when an abortion is necessary to either save the life of the woman or avert substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.
Napolitano also vetoed HB 2142, a bill that would ban the sale of human eggs if the eggs are to be used for human cloning research.
Her veto stamp was also used to kill SB 1425, which would have prevented the governor from confiscating firearms and ammunition during a “”state of emergency”” declared by the governor.ÿ
Napolitano said the law was far too restrictive, saying the law would have stopped law enforcement from removing ammunition from the path of a wildfire.
The governor did approve more than 50 bills, the most notable being HB 2376.
The bill will allow women to breastfeed openly in public, even over the objections of private business owners.
Under current state indecent-exposure laws, a woman exposing her nipple to breastfeed her child in a public area risks being arrested if anyone present is offended.
The new breastfeeding law will go into effect 91 days after the end of the legislative session.