Latest news with #HouseCommitteeonStateAgenciesandGovernmentalAffairs
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill regulating transgender Arkansans' bathroom use heads to House despite public pushback
Family Council attorney Stephanie Nichols (left) and Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, present Senate Bill 486 to the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Monday, April 14, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas House will consider a bill denounced by advocates for transgender Arkansans on Wednesday, the final day of the 2025 legislative session. Senate Bill 486 would allow Arkansans to sue for damages if they encounter someone in a bathroom, changing room, shelter or correctional facility who does not align with the 'designated sex' of the restroom. The bill narrowly passed the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Tuesday after 14 people spoke against it and no member of the public spoke for it. 'The intention here is to make it so that trans people cannot exist in public,' said Maricella Garcia, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families' race equity director. 'If you cannot use the restroom, you cannot go out in public.' Garcia was among several people who said that enforcing SB 486 would require policing and making assumptions about people's bodies and likely lead to frivolous lawsuits costing taxpayer money. SB 486 is among many bills related to transgender Arkansans that Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, has sponsored in the past few legislative sessions, including one the Senate passed Tuesday pertaining to gender-affirming healthcare. It's not good legislation, it's not good for our community and it's not good Christian values. – Marie Mainard O'Connell, a Presbyterian pastor speaking against SB 486 Bentley sponsored Act 317 of 2023, which prohibits K-12 students from using bathrooms that do not match their gender assigned at birth and requires schools to have a 'reasonable accommodation,' such as a single-occupancy bathroom, for those unable or unwilling to do so. Similarly, SB 486 states that shelters, correctional facilities and other entities must take 'reasonable steps' to comply with the policy; Bentley said signage indicating who is allowed and not allowed in a space would be sufficient, and she said SB 486 is meant to be an extension of Act 317. Bentley also supported Act 619 of 2023, which initially would have criminalized entering and remaining in bathrooms and locker rooms that do not match an adult's gender assigned at birth if children are present. After hours of public pushback before the House Judiciary Committee, that legislation was amended to limit potential criminal charges and prosecutions to adults present in those spaces with criminal intent. The conservative Family Council worked with lawmakers from both political parties to formulate the amendment to Act 619 two years ago. On Tuesday, Family Council attorney Stephanie Nichols said SB 486 would close 'loopholes' in the law to more closely regulate who can enter gender-specific bathrooms. Evelyn Rios Stafford, a Washington County justice of the peace and Arkansas' first openly transgender elected official, spoke against Act 619 two years ago and against SB 486 Tuesday. 'We had a compromise that worked for everybody,' she said. '…Everybody walked away feeling that that was a bill that everybody can live with, and now I feel like that compromise and that promise is being broken.' Arkansas House committee changes controversial public bathroom bill Nichols and Bentley repeatedly said SB 486 protects women's and girls' privacy, the same argument supporters of Act 317 and Act 619 used. Rep. Cindy Crawford, R-Fort Smith, was the House sponsor of Act 619 and said Tuesday that not passing SB 486 'opens the door' to men entering women's bathrooms to commit sexual violence. Several opponents of SB 486 said not only that transgender women in bathrooms are not a threat, but also that they are often survivors of sexual violence and that the bill does nothing to prevent such things. '[This bill] exploits my trauma to push a political agenda that's rooted not in facts but in fear,' Brittany Stockton said. '…The idea that predators are pretending to be trans to attack people in bathrooms is a harmful myth.' Multiple speakers also said transgender people face a higher risk of identity-based violence and harassment than other demographics. Marie Mainard O'Connell, a Presbyterian pastor and mother of a transgender teen, said she fears one day having to conduct a funeral service for a transgender person dead by suicide or targeted violence. 'If I have to perform that service, you're getting an invitation,' she told the committee. Crawford said SB 486 is not intended to harm anyone and her 'heart hurts' for transgender people who feel targeted. 'Why should we protect this minority, trans people, when we are putting in danger young women and women in bathrooms that are designated for their sex?' Crawford said. O'Connell responded to Crawford's statement by reminding the committee that one of Jesus' parables in the Bible involves a shepherd leaving 99 sheep behind to search for one that was missing. 'Please vote no on this,' O'Connell said. 'It's not good legislation, it's not good for our community and it's not good Christian values.' Rep. Nicole Clowney, D-Fayetteville, said transgender people who no longer physically resemble their gender assigned at birth would be at risk of violence if the law requires them to use the bathroom that does not align with their identity. Bentley said Clowney was 'way out there on a limb' and reiterated the 'reasonable steps' portion of SB 486. 'We have two sexes, male and female, no matter how [many] drugs you take or the kind of surgery you have,' Bentley said. She introduced the bill to the committee Monday, but was asked to pull it down before public comment. House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, asked for an analysis of the bill's fiscal impact, expressing concerns that public buildings would incur significant costs in order to meet the accommodation standards in SB 486. The fiscal impact statement from the Department of Finance and Administration asserts that SB 486 will not require the expenditure of state funds or 'the construction or modification of any state facilities.' Rios Stafford disputed this and said not all government buildings in Arkansas have single-occupancy restrooms. 'Any county, any city that wants to do the right thing by their citizens is going to have to spend money and is going to have to spend a lot of money, and we know how much retrofitting a building costs, especially if it's an older building that was grandfathered in before the Americans with Disabilities Act,' Rios Stafford said. The Arkansas Senate passed SB 486 along party lines April 2. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE On Tuesday, the Senate sent a bill to the governor's desk that would broaden the scope of a 2023 law that created civil liability for doctors who provide gender-affirming health care to transgender minors. The Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act, or Act 274 of 2023, created a 15-year window for adults to sue physicians for 'any physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological injury' incurred while the adult received hormone replacement therapy, puberty blockers or gender-affirming surgeries as a minor. Bentley sponsored both Act 274 and its proposed amendment, House Bill 1916, which would add mental health care providers to the law's list of medical professionals liable for 'gender-affirming intervention.' She has repeatedly said gender-affirming medical care is harmful to minors; physicians who treat transgender children said otherwise during the 2022 trial over a Bentley-sponsored 2021 law that sought to ban this care. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed HB 1916 Monday night. Bentley told the committee that gender-affirming care consists of 'grotesque experiments that stunt and suppress a child's natural development in service of scientific fantasies.' All 29 Republican senators voted to send HB 1916 to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' desk Tuesday while all six Democrats voted against it. Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, was the only member of the Judiciary Committee to vote against HB 1916 Monday. He said he agreed with public testimony that the bill's use of the phrase 'gender-affirming intervention' is too broad. Psychologist Lindsey Thomas said HB 1916 would hold therapists liable for using transgender minors' preferred names and pronouns as 'gender-affirming intervention'; Bentley agreed that the bill would preclude this from happening. Thomas also said HB 1916 would increase the costs of providers' medical malpractice insurance and increase wait times for all children to see a therapist in Arkansas. The bill mentions hormones and puberty blockers, but the six health care professionals that opposed the bill Monday said mental health care providers do not prescribe these medications. Nine more people had signed up to speak against the bill but did not get to speak due to the committee's time constraints. 'We don't know if or when an issue of gender dysphoria might show up,' said Garry Teeter, a counselor and a Christian pastor. 'We may be working with that child for months or years, and then this comes up in therapy… At that point, it would be detrimental and harmful to the client for the therapist to say, 'Because of this particular law that's now being considered, we're no longer able to provide you the care that we have been providing.'' In March, members of the House Judiciary Committee, the public and the Arkansas Attorney General's staff expressed concerns that Bentley's House Bill 1668 would infringe on the right to freedom of expression. That bill would have created civil liability for any adult who aids a minor's 'social transitioning,' including 'changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, and name.' Bentley promised to amend HB 1668 but withdrew it the day after she filed HB 1916. Committee awaits amendments to proposed liability for social transitioning of transgender minors
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arkansas House will consider proposal to remove and replace entire State Library Board
Kristin Stuart (left) expresses opposition to Senate Bill 640, co-sponsored by Rep. Howard Beaty (right), R-Crossett, before the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Monday, April 14, 2025. The bill would reconstitute the Arkansas State Library Board. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) An Arkansas House committee approved a proposal Monday to remove all seven members of the State Library Board and allow Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to replace them later this year. Senate Bill 640 passed the Senate Thursday with support from 27 Republicans. Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, and Rep. Howard Beaty, R-Crossett, filed the bill late Wednesday night, less than two hours after Senate Bill 536 hit a dead end with a week left in the legislative session. Beaty was among a bipartisan group of members of the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs to vote against SB 536. The bill would have abolished both the Arkansas State Library and its board and transferred their powers and responsibilities to the state Department of Education. Beaty told the same committee Monday that the current board should be replaced because of its 'dysfunction' and 'infighting.' Arkansas Senate approves State Library Board overhaul after dissolution bill fails 'There were legitimate concerns that were raised, and those haven't been addressed,' he said. '[It shows] the lack of consideration of what we need in this state and what our constituents are telling us.' Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, filed SB 536 last month in response to the State Library Board's failure to pass two measures he requested as conditions for him to drop his promise to abolish the board. Sullivan has targeted the State Library for its affiliation with the American Library Association, which he claims is a leftist political organization, and for the board's refusal to adopt policies directing public libraries to keep certain materials out of the hands of minors. The board rejected both efforts with a 4-3 vote in March. The latter would have created nonbinding policies to protect children from 'sexually explicit' content in libraries and detached the State Library from the ALA. The three board members who supported Sullivan's requests were all Sanders appointees: former Republican state senator Jason Rapert of Conway, who moved to approve the requests; Shari Bales of Hot Springs, whom the Senate confirmed alongside Rapert; and Sydney McKenzie of Rogers, who joined the board in January and is married to GOP Rep. Brit McKenzie. Rapert has been the board's most outspoken advocate for keeping 'sexually explicit' content out of children's reach and has called for the board's abolition due to the majority's consistent refusal to back his efforts. SB 640 would require the seven new members to draw lots determining how their terms will be staggered, ending between one and seven years from when the bill becomes law. Subsequent appointees would serve seven-year terms, the current length of time board members serve. Those terms end in October every year, and Rep. Julie Mayberry reminded the committee that Sanders will be able to appoint a new board member in just a few months. The Republican lawmaker from Hensley said she would not support SB 640 because she personally knows and respects a State Library Board member. 'I know her work and her dedication to students, to families across the state is exemplary,' Mayberry said. 'There's no reason to eliminate every single position on this board.' Lupe Peña de Martinez of Mabelvale is a former principal at a public school in East End, which is in Mayberry's House district, and her term on the State Library Board is currently set to expire in 2028. At the March board meeting in which Sullivan's two requested motions failed, Peña de Martinez made a successful motion to create nonbinding policies aimed at protecting children in libraries while honoring the First Amendment and library material selection standards. All three Sanders appointees voted against the motion. Nothing in SB 640 would prevent current State Library Board members from being reappointed, said Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle. He and other Republicans expressed support for the bill as an alternative to SB 536, particularly since SB 640 does not involve the Department of Education in the State Library's responsibilities. Lawmakers and members of the public both included this as a reason to oppose SB 536. Mayberry joined the committee's three Democrats in voting against SB 640. House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, challenged Beaty's assertion about State Library Board 'dysfunction.' 'They are continuing to have meetings [and] they are continuing to make decisions, even if they're not the decisions that some people would like,' Collins said. 'It's a functional board. It's just a board that some people disagree with.' Collins said he did not believe the Legislature should set a precedent of reconstituting state boards if some lawmakers are frustrated with them. Beaty said he disagreed and was 'not concerned in the slightest' about setting such a precedent. Kristin Stuart of Little Rock, the only audience member to speak against SB 640, agreed with Collins that the proposal is a 'power grab.' She said reconstituting the board would 'disrupt its mission' of supporting Arkansas libraries and preserving people's access to information and learning. '[SB 640 is] opening the door for political appointees who may not have the experience, objectivity or commitment to intellectual freedom that the board requires,' Stuart said. The State Library Board is scheduled to meet the second Friday in May and in August. If SB 640 passes the House this week and if Sanders signs it, it will go into effect Aug. 1, and it gives Sanders 30 days to replace the board. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House panel rejects proposal to dissolve Arkansas State Library and Board
Sen. Dan Sullivan (left), R-Jonesboro, and Rep. Wayne Long (right), R-Bradford, present to the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs a bill they sponsored, Senate Bill 536, to abolish the Arkansas State Library on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) An Arkansas House committee Wednesday rejected a bill that would abolish the State Library and its board, making it difficult for the proposal to make it to the governor's desk by the end of the legislative session April 16. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, has repeatedly promised to dissolve the State Library Board and broadened this mission when he filed Senate Bill 536 last month. He told the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday that the State Library and local libraries need more 'accountability' to the government entities that fund them. SB 536 passed the Senate last week by the slimmest possible margin. It would transfer the authorities, funds, contracts and employees of the agency and its board to the Arkansas Department of Education. The State Library is already under the department's umbrella but operates independently, and its board disburses state funds to public libraries on a quarterly basis. Education Secretary Jacob Oliva said the department is more than capable of carrying out the State Library's responsibilities, but committee members were unconvinced. Rep. Stan Berry, R-Dover, said he had 'little faith' that the department's oversight would resolve any of the issues Sullivan said he had with the State Library and its board. Arkansas Senate narrowly OKs dissolution of State Library; bill heads to House Berry and seven other committee members voted against SB 536, and five more were absent or did not vote. Seven members voted to pass the bill, including Rep. Wayne Long, R-Bradford, the bill's House sponsor, who called the State Library Board 'too big for their britches.' Long and Sullivan said they took issue with the board rejecting two motions last month to protect children in libraries and to detach from the American Library Association. At the same meeting, the board passed a separate motion aimed at protecting children in libraries while upholding the First Amendment. Conservatives statewide, including State Library Board member and former Republican state senator Jason Rapert, have called for libraries to keep children from accessing content considered inappropriate for them. SB 536 would codify several new criteria for libraries to receive state funds, including 'prohibit[ing] access to age-inappropriate materials to a person who is sixteen (16) years old or younger.' SB 536 defines 'age-inappropriate material' as 'books, media, or any other material accessible at a public library containing images or explicit and detailed descriptions' of sexual acts, sexual contact and human genitalia. Bobbie Guerra, a homeschooling mother from Lowell, said putting the Department of Education 'in direct control of public libraries would put homeschooling parents who utilize libraries as educational resources at the mercy of… what [it] deems age-appropriate.' Additionally, SB 536's language was just as 'flawed and fatal' as that of Act 372 of 2023, said Arkansas Library Association President-elect Adam Webb, referring to a Sullivan-sponsored law partially blocked in federal court that the state is appealing. The blocked sections of Act 372 would have given local elected officials the final say over whether to relocate challenged library materials some consider 'obscene' and made librarians legally liable for disseminating such materials. SB 536 does not mention 'obscenity' or 'sexually explicit' material despite its supporters routinely mentioning the latter, Webb said. 'When judges tell you, 'Here's the type of speech that you can regulate, [here's what is] sexually explicit, here are the definitions,' use it,' he said. 'Don't reinvent the wheel, but here we are again two years later with the same vague language.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Webb is also the director of the Garland County Library, and he was one of nine Arkansans who spoke against SB 536. Judy Calhoun, the recently retired director of the Southeast Arkansas Regional Library system, and Faulkner-Van Buren Regional Library director John McGraw said SB 536 created 'unfunded mandates,' such as requiring libraries to have interlibrary loan programs and to meet minimum hours of operation per year in order to receive state funds. Journalist, professor and historian Sonny Rhodes said he had a problem with the bill changing the oversight of certain historical records, which the State Library currently oversees. 'If SB 536 results in the loss or restricted access to such databases, it could hinder research efforts, making it harder to produce informed and accurate academic research,' Rhodes said. Four Arkansans spoke for the bill, including representatives of the Family Council and the all-Republican Saline County Quorum Court. All four said they struggle to attend their local libraries with the children in their families due to content they consider inappropriate and easily visible. The committee spent several minutes debating two sex education books that Greenbrier Republican Rep. Stephen Meeks, a member of the committee, challenged in 2021 with the goal of removing them from the Faulkner-Van Buren Regional Library. However, SB 536's appropriateness criteria includes a limited exception for sex education materials, which would be accessible to minors between 12 and 15 years old. Those under 12 would not be able to access such materials if their parents or guardians have forbidden their access in writing. SB 536 also puts specific higher education requirements in place for library directors. Rep. Jeremy Wooldridge, R-Marmaduke, said this provision led him to oppose the bill because every library director in his Northeast Arkansas district 'would have to be replaced.' Rep. Howard Beaty, R-Crossett, also voted against the bill and said 'both sides are going to lose.' 'Shame on y'all… I think this could have been resolved very easily,' Beaty said. 'Folks dug their heels in and decided they weren't going to negotiate.' Deputy Editor Antoinette Grajeda contributed to this article.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposed maximum reading level for citizen-led ballot measures stumbles but passes Arkansas House
Rep. Ryan Rose, R-Van Buren, presents House Bill 1713 to the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) A proposal mandating citizen-led ballot measures be written at an 8th-grade or lower reading level cleared the Arkansas House of Representatives Wednesday after three attempts to pass its emergency clause. House Bill 1713 passed the House on Tuesday with 60 votes; a separate vote on the emergency clause received 63 votes. Emergency clauses require a two-thirds vote in each chamber, meaning at least 67 House votes, and allow laws to go into effect immediately upon the governor's signature. HB 1713's emergency clause received 70 votes Wednesday and will next be heard in the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. HB 1713 narrowly passed the equivalent House committee on March 12 after lawmakers and members of the public raised concerns that proposed ballot measures are too complex by default to be written at or below an 8th-grade reading level. Bill sponsor Rep. Ryan Rose, R-Van Buren, said the bill should help Arkansans 'make informed decisions when asked to sign a petition, without confusion, without legalese, without any deceptive wording.' Republican lawmakers this year have introduced a wide range of bills that would add regulations to Arkansas' direct democracy process. The 2024 election cycle saw a wide range of proposed citizen-led ballot measures, only one of which qualified for the November ballot, and supporters of the direct democracy regulations have made allegations of deceptive practices by supporters of last year's measures. Many of the bills have had emergency clauses, and some have required multiple votes in either chamber before meeting the two-thirds threshold. Several of those bills have been signed into law, and most were sponsored by Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton. Two bills to change citizen-led petition process pass Arkansas House, but without emergency clauses Hammer will run next year for Secretary of State, the office that oversees elections. He is a co-sponsor of HB 1713. Rep. Nicole Clowney, D-Fayetteville, voted against HB 1713 in committee and on the House floor. She said Wednesday that she supported 'a readability standard of some sort' for ballot measures but did not believe HB 1713 was the right mechanism for creating one. The bill mandates the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level readability test as the determinant of compliance with the policy. 'It's just an algorithm that spits out a readability level based on sentence length and word length,' Clowney said. 'If a word has five syllables, a word like 'constitutional,' you are automatically penalized by the parameters of this test.' Committee chairman Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, R-Paragould, said the bill does not acknowledge that 'it can be difficult to convey complex ideas or concepts with small words.' His vote to pass the bill out of the committee was the deciding vote, but he voted present on the bill and the emergency clause Tuesday. He voted for the emergency clause Wednesday. HB 1713 would not apply the same readability standards to legislatively proposed constitutional amendments, which drew concerns from lawmakers and members of the public March 12. Voters approved an amendment last year that the Legislature placed on the ballot, allowing trade-school students to benefit from scholarship lottery funds. Clowney pointed out Wednesday that this amendment had a college graduate-level reading level, according to the Flesch-Kincaid readability test. Proposed amendments are required to begin with 'an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution.' House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, told the committee last week that this phrase is also deemed college-graduate level by the reading test. So is the title of HB 1713 itself, said Gail Choate, a political scientist and civics educator who spoke against the bill March 12. 'What I'm concerned [about] with this bill is that it does nothing to address civic education,' Choate said. 'It does nothing to address the ability of people to understand even what a ballot initiative is or what it works… It dumbs down the process, it lowers the standard under which we're presenting information under the guise that people aren't able to understand.' Jerry Cox, president of the conservative Family Council, spoke in favor of the bill before the committee, while attorney and direct democracy advocate J.P. Tribell spoke against it. HB 1713 is likely to be considered by senators after the Legislature's spring break next week.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposed ban on noncitizen voting, already illegal, passes Arkansas House committee
Mireya Reith (left), executive director of immigrant advocacy group Arkansas United, speaks against the Only Citizens Voting Act, sponsored by Rep. Wayne Long (right), R-Bradford, before the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) A bill meant to further deter those who are not United States citizens from voting in Arkansas elections narrowly passed a legislative committee Wednesday. Noncitizen voting is already illegal on the federal level. In Arkansas, the only documents required for voter registration are a Social Security card and a driver's license or state-issued identification card, both of which noncitizens are able to obtain, said Rep. Wayne Long, R-Bradford, sponsor of the Only Citizens Vote Act. The proposed law, House Bill 1422, would require 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. The DF&A, which oversees issuance of driver's licenses and state IDs, would provide the information in quarterly reports starting Jan. 1, 2026. Anyone with this ID is 'a guest in our country,' Long told the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. 'I don't think it's really a burden to ask them to help us protect the integrity of our voting system, and if they really do plan to become citizens, I think they probably would have an appreciation for the fact that we're trying to make sure only citizens vote,' he said. If a noncitizen is found to be registered to vote, the bill requires 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 be required to cancel the person's voter registration. The individual would have the chance to provide proof of U.S. citizenship after being notified of the Secretary of State's actions. Long said this provision should prevent citizens from being wrongfully removed from the voter rolls or having their licenses suspended, in response to a question from Rep. Denise Ennett, D-Little Rock. When asked for data about noncitizen voting in Arkansas, Long said the Secretary of State's office doesn't currently 'have any way of knowing' whether noncitizens have voted because they do not have data from the finance department that would indicate whether any noncitizens are registered to vote. 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. The Secretary of State's office has been 'diligently looking' for ways to confirm registered voters' citizenship status since the Legislature passed a 2023 law mandating the office do so, but this remains a 'blind spot' within the office, assistant director of elections Josh Bridges told the committee. Two advocates for immigrants in Arkansas spoke against HB 1422 and said noncitizens do not vote. Maricella Garcia, race equity director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, noted that voting as a noncitizen is 'the most dangerous thing they can do.' 'I have spoken to the community at length,' she said, adding she used to be the director of Catholic Immigration Services. 'No one wants to do the very few things that will permanently bar you from being eligible for any [legal] status.' Immigrants in Arkansas 'have been purged' from voter rolls 'through the name-checking and data-sharing' outlined in HB 1422, said Mireya Reith, founder and executive director of Arkansas United, an immigrant advocacy group. Additionally, 'there are a lot of checks and balances' that prevent noncitizens from voting, she said. 'It's just so important, on behalf of our members, that it be known that immigrants are very aware of the citizenship process and aren't trying to vote when they're not able to,' said Reith, one of two speakers against HB 1422. Noncitizen voting is rare but has been legalized in a handful of municipalities 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. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX HB 1422 would also require 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. The finance department would likely have to make more changes to the licenses of people under 21 to differentiate them from noncitizen licenses, Garcia said. This would both be time-consuming and make it difficult for the state to meet the requirement for Arkansans to have a Real ID to enter a federal building or board a domestic flight from May 5 onward, she said. Noncitizen ID cards would be required to have the words 'limited term' on them in conspicuous letters under HB 1422, with the expiration date matching that of the document signifying the noncitizen's legal U.S. residency status. Current noncitizen ID holders would not be required to exchange their current IDs for new ones as soon as the proposed law goes into effect and would instead be allowed to wait until the card expires, Long said. Election commissioners and poll workers would be required under HB 1422 to undergo training to recognize and refuse noncitizens' identification if presented with them at polling locations. Reith and Garcia both said the proposed special IDs would single out legal residents of Arkansas who are not U.S. citizens. Driver's licenses are necessary for engaging with law enforcement, and Reith said having a 'safe document' that doesn't 'look different from everybody else's' is important to immigrants who want to help their communities. Long said it's important for poll workers to be able 'to recognize if someone's trying to vote that should not be voting.' Rep. Howard Beaty, R-Crossett, said the state should be able to 'just catch one' noncitizen who does not 'have good intentions' while acknowledging Reith's point that the immigrants she works with are 'good actors.' He asked Reith if HB 1422 would be worth passing for that reason. 'For us, part of how we catch and get ahead of finding who those individuals are is our community feeling safe to report,' Reith replied. HB 1422 passed the committee with the minimum of 11 affirmative votes on a roll call vote. All members in favor of the bill were Republicans, while two Republicans and two Democrats voted against it. Five members were absent. No members of the public spoke for the bill, which will next be heard by the full House.
