LA Cardinal, Ariz. Senator Spar Over Immigration

LOS ANGELES (April 22) -- A controversial Arizona law targeting illegal immigrants has sparked a war of words between an Arizona legislator and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, who on Sunday decried a scenario under the pending legislation of "reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation."

Mahony, leader of the nation's largest Catholic diocese -- and recently under fire himself for his role in managing priests suspected of sexual abuse -- blasted the Arizona law as "flawed reasoning."

The law would make it a state crime to be in Arizona without proper immigration papers and would require police to check the legal status of those suspected of being undocumented. It would also make it illegal to hire undocumented day laborers. The law has been approved by the state Legislature and is awaiting Gov. Jan Brewer's signature.

"The law is wrongly assuming that Arizona residents, including local law enforcement personnel, will now shift their total attention to guessing which Latino-looking or foreign-looking person may or may not have proper documents," Mahony wrote on his diocesan blog. "That's also nonsense."

Arizona state Sen. Russell K. Pearce, the sponsor of the bill, fired back at Mahony during a radio interview Wednesday. He brought up the religious leader's troubles in the church sex scandal, describing him as "a guy who's been protecting child molesters and predators all of his life.

"He's the last guy that ought to be speaking out," Pearce, a former Maricopa County deputy sheriff, said on the nationally syndicated Michael Smerconish radio talk show. "This guy has a history of protecting and moving predators around in order to avoid detection by the law. He has no room to talk."

Pearce's comments drew a personal response Wednesday from Tod M. Tamberg, the diocesan spokesman.

"Mudslinging and fear mongering are the essence of Sen. Pearce's remarks," Tamberg told the Los Angeles Times. "He desperately wants to change the subject, throwing up a wall of inaccurate statements about Cardinal Mahony because he has no good answer to the cardinal's challenge that this is a draconian and unjust law."

Pearce said on the radio show that he does not oppose legal immigration, but is adamant that those who break the law should be punished. "This has nothing to do with immigration," he said. "It has to do with those who enter our country illegally."

Pearce's son, a Maricopa County deputy sheriff, was shot and critically wounded in 2004 while trying to arrest an illegal immigrant wanted in connection with a murder.

Pearce speculated that Mahony's stance was taken with an eye toward "tithes and offerings and how he fills the pews in his churches that has had a declining enrollment."

"Where does he stand up for America and the rule of law?" Pearce said. "He ought to be embarrassed and he ought to be drummed out as far as I'm concerned."

Mahony is expected to retire when he turns 75 in February. Pope Benedict XVI has named Mexico-born Bishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio to replace him.

The pending law has won support from conservatives and some police groups, such as the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, but has been blasted by others, such as the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police.