Latest news with #DianaGonzalesWorthen
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arkansas House rejects proposed ban on noncitizen voting, which is already illegal
Rep. Diana Gonzales Worthen, D-Springdale, expresses her opposition to the Only Citizens Vote Act before the bill's failure to pass the Arkansas House on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas House of Representatives failed to pass a bill that would have placed restrictions on noncitizens attempting to vote or register to vote, something that is both federally illegal and not happening in Arkansas, according to immigrant advocates. The Only Citizens Vote Act, or House Bill 1422, would have changed both state law and the state Constitution. Changing the latter via legislative action requires a minimum two-thirds vote from lawmakers, or 67 votes in the House. Only 53 House members, all Republicans, supported the bill. Fourteen more Republicans did not vote. The constitutional change in question would have added references to the proposed new statute to Arkansas Constitutional Amendment 51, which lists the documents required for voter registration. Those documents include a Social Security card and a driver's license or state-issued identification card, both of which noncitizens are able to obtain, bill sponsor Rep. Wayne Long, R-Bradford, told a House committee that narrowly passed the bill Wednesday. HB 1422 would have required the Department of Finance and Administration to share 'names and identifying information of each' noncitizen with an Arkansas-issued ID or driver's license with the Secretary of State's office, which oversees elections. If a noncitizen was found to be registered to vote, the bill would have required the secretary of state to refer the individual to the Attorney General's office for prosecution, and the clerk of the noncitizen's county of residence would have been required to cancel the person's voter registration. The individual would have had the chance to provide proof of U.S. citizenship after being notified of the secretary of state's actions. Proposed ban on noncitizen voting, already illegal, passes Arkansas House committee However, there are 'no documented cases' of noncitizens voting in Arkansas, so HB 1422 addresses 'a non-issue,' said Democratic Rep. Diana Gonzales Worthen, the Legislature's first Latina who represents the state's first majority-Hispanic district in Springdale. 'Immigrants do not want to break the law, especially in this manner, because if they're in line for citizenship, this will totally erase that,' she said. Providing false information on a voter registration form, including about citizenship status, risks fines and/or imprisonment, according to the Secretary of State's office. HB 1422 would also have required the finance department to print noncitizen driver's licenses and state-issued IDs in a vertical format. Individuals from ages 16 to 20 already have vertically printed ID cards, which Gonzales Worthen said would 'cause confusion' and single out immigrants if HB 1422 became law. Mireya Reith, founder and executive director of Arkansas United, and Maricella Garcia, race equity director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, made the same point Wednesday when speaking against HB 1422 before the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. Additionally, HB 1422 states that its noncitizen ID requirements would not be a valid federal ID. This would clash with the requirement for Arkansans to have a Real ID to enter a federal building or board a domestic flight from May 5 onward, said Rep. Nicole Clowney, D-Fayetteville. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX There are 71,648 noncitizens legally residing in Arkansas, and any of them 'could potentially be voting, but we don't really know,' Long said Wednesday. Clowney noted that altering tens of thousands of Arkansans' driver's licenses would cost $152,000, according to a fiscal impact statement from the state finance department. No member of the House spoke for HB 1422, and eight Republicans voted present. Six Republicans joined all 19 House Democrats in voting against the bill: Rep. Brandon Achor of Maumelle Rep. Julie Mayberry of Hensley Rep. Mark McElroy of Tillar Rep. Kendra Moore of Lincoln House Majority Whip Stetson Painter of Mountain Home Rep. Trey Steimel of Pocahontas Mayberry and McElroy also voted against the bill Wednesday in committee. U.S. House GOP targets noncitizen voting, even though it's rare Noncitizen voting is rare but has been legalized in a handful of cities nationwide, including in Washington, D.C., in 2023, leading to backlash from conservatives. Thirteen states — including Louisiana, Oklahoma and Missouri — have amended their constitutions since 2020 to specify that noncitizens cannot vote in those states. President Donald Trump pushed the false narrative of noncitizens voting often in federal elections while he was campaigning for reelection last year, and U.S. House Republicans introduced legislation that would have required states to verify proof of citizenship to prevent noncitizens from voting in federal elections. The bill stalled in the U.S. Senate, which was controlled by Democrats at the time. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Axios
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Arkansas' first Latina legislator brings education background to table
Arkansas' only majority-Hispanic House district is now being represented by the state's first Latina legislator. What they're saying:"I'm the first but I won't be the last," Democratic Rep. Diana Gonzales Worthen, who won her Springdale seat in November on her fourth bid for public office, told Axios in a wide-ranging interview. The intrigue: House District 9 was also the only seat to flip from Republican to Democratic in the legislature, which is overwhelmingly Republican. How it happened: "We thought we had it," Gonzales Worthen said of her 2022 run for the seat when she lost by 109 votes. This time around in a rematch with former republican Rep. DeAnna Hodges, her campaign identified 377 supporters who didn't vote and went back to learn why they didn't turn out. They found that most of them were first-time voters including new citizens who weren't familiar with the voting process, like that open times for polling places are inconsistent. Her campaign reached out to inform voters on how to vote and created bilingual information cards, which she found were helpful to many voters, not solely Spanish speakers. Background: Addressing gaps is not new for the legislator, who is an educator by profession and began teaching biology to students speaking English as a second language at Rogers High School in 1996. She said the area wasn't prepared for the increase in Latin American immigrants. Zoom in: Gonzales Worthen became a resource for Hispanic students, who often had language and transportation barriers. Her classroom doubled as a mini library with encyclopedias students could take home. She remembers when the scholarship coordinator providing information on applying to college skipped the ESL classes, assuming those students wouldn't be going to college. Gonzales Worthen explained that the students were learning English and still deserved the same information. Years later, the same scholarship coordinator thanked her. "Sometimes it does take time, but eventually people will come around, and I have a strong belief in people," she said. "Maybe at the time she didn't know, but I'm going to treat her with respect and give her the best knowledge that I can and try to help her in the process because ultimately we're both here for the students." State of play: Gonzales Worthen said she wants to focus on policies that can help working families and strengthen education and schools. Some potential policy changes include: Increasing pay for school staff like nurses, bus drivers and paraprofessionals. Addressing the shortage of special education and multilingual teachers plus nurse educators. Affordable childcare and increasing access to preschool. Mental health issues like requiring school resource officers to receive mental health training. Accessible dental care. Zoom out: Gonzales Worthen co-founded two NWA nonprofits, the Hispanic Women's Organization of Arkansas which encourages civic engagement and provides scholarships, plus OneCommunity which largely focuses on education-related initiatives like child literacy.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
In reversal from 2023, much-debated bill to end ‘preferential treatment' passes Arkansas House
Rep. Diana Gonzales Worthen, a Springdale Democrat and the Legislature's first Latina, explains her opposition to a proposed law that would 'prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment' by public entities on the House floor on Thursday, February 6, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) A bill that would 'prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment' by public entities in Arkansas passed the House of Representatives on Thursday, less than two years after a similar bill failed in the chamber. Senate Bill 3 would eliminate required minority recruitment and retention plans and reports from public school districts and higher education institutions. The bill would also repeal language in state procurement proposals that encourage minority participation or require bidders to adopt an equal opportunity hiring program designed to increase the percentage of minority employees. Legislative Democrats led the bipartisan opposition to the bill in both chambers this week and last. Several Black lawmakers urged their colleagues to vote against the bill, which passed the Senate with 24 yes votes and the House with 65 yes votes. Rep. Tara Shephard, a Little Rock Democrat, said she felt compelled to speak against the bill as a Black woman and a 'daughter of the South.' 'This legislation claims to ban discrimination and special treatment — ban discrimination and special treatment against who?' Shephard said. 'What this legislation does is it ties our hands. It takes our power away when disparities exist, when farmers or other businesses can't get loans or contracts, when communities begin to fall further behind, when women are paid less [than men] for the same amount of work. This legislation puts a target on the backs of decent, hardworking Arkansans.' Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, presented SB 3 to the House as a policy to expand access to existing programs based on merit. She also said it would align state policy with that of the federal government, specifically an executive order from President Donald Trump declaring an end to all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared unconstitutional the use of affirmative action in higher education. Rep. Randy Torres, R-Siloam Springs, said he had experienced discrimination firsthand as a Mexican American. He said he would vote for the bill because he was 'opposed to any governmental architecture that continues to make you and others victims.' Torres said he was told in high school that he should not consider going to college. Rep. Diana Gonzales Worthen, a Springdale Democrat and the Legislature's first Latina, said she encountered faculty that similarly dismissed her Hispanic and Latino students when she taught English as a second language. Racial disparities between teachers and students in Springdale schools have decreased due to the state's minority teacher recruitment policy, which SB 3 would eliminate, Gonzales Worthen said. All 19 House Democrats voted against the bill except Rep. Ken Ferguson, D-Pine Bluff, though lawmakers sometimes cast erroneous votes that can later be remedied. Ferguson spoke against SB 3, saying part of his childhood overlapped with segregation measures such as separate water fountains and bathrooms based on race. Ferguson also said his work in human resources showed him the bias of white individuals who repeatedly did not hire qualified nonwhite job candidates. 'They said to me, 'Ken, well, I'm not racist… I just feel like hiring people that look like me,'' Ferguson said. Rep. James Eaton, R-Huntsville, voted for SB 3 after expressing concern that it would reduce the state's resources for students with disabilities. Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, had similar qualms during a Wednesday committee meeting. Bentley insisted Wednesday and Thursday that SB 3 will not have an impact on students with disabilities. Mayberry and eight other House Republicans voted against SB 3: Rep. Joey Carr of Blytheville Rep. Fran Cavenaugh of Walnut Ridge Rep. Matt Duffield of Russellville Rep. Jon Eubanks of Paris Rep. Mark McElroy of Tillar Rep. Matthew Shepherd of El Dorado Rep. Jeff Wardlaw of Hermitage Rep. Jim Wooten of Beebe Eight of the same nine members voted against a similar bill, SB 71, in 2023. Shepherd, who was Speaker of the House at the time, did not vote on it. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SB 71 failed on the House floor after several passionate speeches from members of both parties, including Rep. Fred Allen, D-Little Rock, who spoke against SB 3 Thursday. Twenty-seven Republicans voted for SB 71, while a bipartisan majority of 51 House members voted against it. SB 71 passed the Senate in 2023 with 18 votes, six fewer than SB 3 and the minimum number of votes needed to pass the chamber. Sen. Alan Clark of Lonsdale was the only Republican senator to vote against SB 3 last week, while two other Republicans voted present and two did not vote. Clark said he could not support amending a scholarship designed to attract qualified minority teachers to the Delta, a rural area with a significant Black population and a known teacher shortage. The following House Republicans voted present on SB 3: Brandon Achor of Maumelle, Carol Dalby of Texarkana, Les Eaves of Searcy and Jeremiah Moore of Clarendon. Four more Republicans did not vote on the bill. The text of the bill would allow anyone 'who believes his or her rights have been impacted under this section' to file a civil lawsuit and allow a judge who sides with the plaintiff to issue an injunction and allow the plaintiff to recover court costs and attorneys' fees. An earlier version of SB 3 would have made violating it a Class A misdemeanor. Bentley amended the bill to remove this provision, meaning the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs and the full Senate will have to consider the bill again before it can go to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' desk for final approval. Bill to prohibit discrimination passes split Arkansas House panel after much public opposition
