Governor vetoes bill on police role in immigration

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a bill to require city and county police agencies to have programs to confront federal immigration violations.

The proposal approved by the Legislature would have allowed local police agencies to meet the requirement to confront immigration violations in several ways.

Those ways included getting training for their police and jail officers, putting federal immigration agents in units within their departments or cultivating relationships with federal authorities.

Valley immigrant rights leader Salvador Reza said the veto was a "brave" move by the governor and said it sends a message to anti-immigrant supporters.

"She's also joining Mayor Gordon and saying, ‘you know, enough is enough, you've made your point, let's go on and let's try to resolve the situation, not keep on dividing the state the way you've been dividing the state for the last four or five years," Reza said.

Phoenix attorney Daniel Ortega said if the bill had been approved and went into effect, some residents would fear the police.

"It's a victory when you consider that this will make our community safer and that the police departments in our state can use their resources more efficiently in fighting real crime," he said.

The governor said the proposed requirement was unnecessary and expensive.