Immigration Reform 2013 News: Supreme Court Upholds Immigrant Rights In Arizona Case

The Supreme Court struck down an Arizona law this week that would have required Arizonans to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

Under the 1993 Federal "Motor Voter" Law, eligible adults are allowed to register to vote by filling out a simple form, which they then mail in and sign a statement saying they are citizens, under threat of perjury. Arizonan lawmakers argued that the system was too lenient, and issued Proposition 200, which would have forced prospective voters to present as documentation an Arizonan driver's license from after 1996, a U.S. birth certificate, a U.S. passport, or other similar documentation.

The decision by the courts may prove pivotal on the issue of both voter rights and the rights of immigrants. Four other states (Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Kansas) have similar legislation, and twelve states had been contemplating like-minded reform to their own voter registration process.

For Arizona proponents of Proposition 200, the case was based on trying to prevent undocumented immigrants onto voter rolls. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), there are 390,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona, as of 2010. Undocumented immigrants make up six percent of the state's overall population.

Meanwhile, politics undoubtedly play a part in the debate as well. Arizonan Latinos, like many Latinos in the country, skew towards the Democratic party. In a state with two Republican Senators and a Republican Governor, exit polls for Latino voters have consistently moved towards the left.  In 2010, 71 percent of Arizona Latino voters  supported Democrat Terry Goddard for governor, while 28 percent supported Republican Jan Brewer, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. 

Not only left-leaning but also expanding,  the Morrison Institute at Arizona State University predicts that between 2010 and 2030, Hispanics will go from a 15 percent to a 25 percent share of the electorate of the state. Arizona lawmakers hoping to slow down that moment were defeated in their efforts Monday.