A local legislator has filed the first of what is expected to bea handful of bills that will target illegal immigration next year,bringing Mississippi’s lawmaking body in line with about 30 otherstate legislatures following Arizona’s lead.

Even though six months remain before the start of the 2011legislative session, District 92 Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven,has already authored and filed an illegal immigration-crackdownbill that is almost an exact replica of Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070,which gives that state’s law enforcement agencies authority toenforce federal immigration laws.

“We can’t make the federal government do its job, but we can makethe state government do its job,” she said. “Arizona won’t be outthere in the cold by themselves for long. Other states are writingthis law, too.”

Currie said she supports stiffer immigration laws in Mississippibecause the state’s delicate financial situation can’t support theincreasing number of illegal immigrants arriving in the state andnation.

A 2006 report from the Mississippi State Auditor put the MagnoliaState’s share of the illegal immigrant population at 50,000. That’s50,000 state residents not contributing to the tax base in a timewhen the state budget has been cut by $500 million, and may bechopped by millions more next year, she said.

“Illegal immigration is costing Mississippi. We can’t afford it,”Currie said. “We have the highest unemployment rate we’ve ever had,and we can’t continue to let people come into our state illegallyand take jobs away from Mississippians.”

Likewise, Currie said her constituents – and most of the state andnation – want tough immigration laws. A wide range of publicopinion polls conducted by various organizations show broad supportfor Arizona’s new law, with some of those polls reaching as high as80 percent.

Want or not wanted, the Arizona law and Currie’s copy forMississippi are wrong, said Bill Chandler, executive director ofthe Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance. He condemned herproposed legislation as “the resurgence of overt racism inMississippi,” and promised MIRA would fight it next year.

“All they are doing is attacking Latinos here in Mississippi, andwhat is happening in Arizona – which has almost as lurid a historyas Mississippi does – is the same thing they did here inMississippi when they initiated the black codes. Now (Currie) isinitiating brown codes,” he said.

In describing her legislation, however, Currie never once made anymention of Latino immigrants.

“I don’t care if they’re here from Sweden if they’re hereillegally,” she rebutted. “It’s not about the color of the skin. Wehave rules here.”

Currie believes her bill has a good chance at passing in 2011, butit may need tweaking beforehand.

Arizona’s immigration law is already being challenged in federalcourt, and even President Barack Obama is threatening to fight thatstate over the law. Even Mexican President Felipe Calder Calderónhas lambasted the law.

Currie’s bill may not make it through the Legislatureword-for-word, but some kind of immigration law likely will, saidDistrict 53 Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto.

“I think you’ll see eight or 10 different versions,” he said. “It’srisen to a political issue people have strong feelings about.

“But what you can’t forget either is we’ve had several largeindustries in this state who have been found to have hired illegalsin their business,” Moak continued. “These are some of the samefolks who drawing benefits from the state in terms of bond issues.If you’re going to attack the problem, you need to look at who’shelping to intensify the problem.”