Russell Pearce

Russell Keith Pearce (June 23, 1947 – January 5, 2023) was an American far-right politician who was a Republican (GOP) member of the Arizona State Senate.

He rose to national prominence as the primary sponsor of Arizona SB1070, a controversial anti-illegal immigrant measure that was signed into law in 2010.

A fifth-generation Arizonan, Pearce was born on June 23, 1947, to Hal Frost Pearce and Norma Crandell.

He grew up in a troubled and impoverished home with an alcoholic father; he recalled in past interviews that when he came home from school, he sometimes found that neighbors had left groceries for the family, but his mother would always put the food to the side, not wishing to accept charity.

Pearce served with the National Guard in Arizona during the Vietnam War.

Pearce wanted to attend medical school, but his family was unable to afford it, which led him to join the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office where he served as a sheriff's deputy for twenty-three years, including a stint as Chief Deputy Sheriff under Joe Arpaio.

After an incident where he continued to pursue several gang members after being shot in the chest, he received a Medal of Valor from the Department.

Pearce's son, Sean Pearce, has also been awarded the Medal of Valor for being shot in the line of duty while serving a homicide warrant.

Pearce claims credit for one of Arpaio's more publicized and controversial actions, that of housing jail inmates in tents.

Following disagreements with Arpaio, Pearce moved to the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division.

The Arizona Auto Theft Authority has been credited with a 60% decrease in statewide car thefts since its inception in 1992.

In 1995, Pearce became the Director of the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division.

Two notable changes during his tenure were: 1) bringing in IBM to create the first version of servicearizona.com, an online resource for Arizonans to update their Motor Vehicle Department information and 2) more controversially, Pearce enrolled Arizona in the then optional (at the federal level) National Drivers Registry program, making collection of social security numbers for drivers' licenses mandatory at the state level to comply with the (then optional) federal program.

This caused a controversy at the time because he caused SSNs to be displayed on the face of the driver's license, causing the state legislature to have to later take up legislation to obfuscate the SSN, replacing it with a "D"# which is seen today.

However, the SSN is still collected at the time of application or via SSOLV, and remains on the Arizona drivers license file.

Pearce oversaw the implementation of a law requiring that applicants for drivers licenses provide either a birth certificate proving they are United States citizens, or documents proving they are in the United States legally.

Proof of citizenship includes an Arizona drivers license issued on or after October 1, 1996, the date from which AZ DLs were required to contain SSNs on the DL data file.

Pearce was the lead sponsor of Arizona SB1070, drafted by Kansas anti-immigrant politician Kris Kobach which passed into law in April 2010 as the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.

The measure attracted national attention as the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in decades within the United States.

After the Obama administration challenged the law, resulting in a federal court ruling that most of the law was unconstitutional, Pearce told a gathering of conservative activists, "When you talk about jihad, that is exactly what Obama has against America, specifically the state of Arizona."

Pearce was discharged from the position of Director of the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division in August 1999 by Arizona Department of Transportation Director Mary Peters, after an investigation revealed that two of Pearce's subordinates had tampered with a Tucson woman's driving record.

Pearce later said he was cleared of wrongdoing, but Peters told the Arizona Republic: "There's a big difference between being cleared and choosing not to file criminal charges".

He was elected to the Arizona House in 2000, representing a district in the Mesa area.

Republican anti-tax activist Grover Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform, named Pearce a "Hero of the Taxpayers" for 2003.

In 2004, Pearce supported Arizona's Proposition 200, which requires individuals to produce proof of citizenship before they may register to vote or apply for public benefits in Arizona.

Prop 200 was approved by voters as a ballot initiative in 2004.

He transferred to the state senate in 2006.

During his tenure, Pearce authored legislation creating the Arizona Auto Theft Authority and served as its chairman.

Prior to his election to the Arizona Senate in 2008, Pearce served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009, and worked in law enforcement for more than twenty years.

In a 2008 story on National Public Radio NPR, he was quoted as saying, "I believe in the rule of law ... I've always believed in the rule of law. We're a nation of laws."; and "I will not back off until we solve the problem of this illegal invasion. Invaders, that's what they are. Invaders on the American sovereignty and it can't be tolerated."

In reaction to the federal government's seeking of an injunction against enforcement of the law on constitutional grounds: "It's outrageous and it's clear they don't want (immigration) laws enforced. What they want is to continue their non-enforcement policy," Pearce said.

"They ignore the damage to America, the cost to our citizens, the deaths" tied to border-related violence.

He also sponsored Arizona SB1097, also debated in the legislature during the 2010 term, which sought to quantify the impact of illegal immigration on the state's K-12 education system.

The text of the bill states that:

CNN announced on June 15, 2010, that Senator Pearce was proposing a measure that would deny U.S. citizenship to children born in this country to illegal immigrants in an effort to thwart so-called "anchor babies".

He was elected President of the Arizona Senate when the Senate began its January 2011 term but then suffered a dramatic reversal of fortune when he was ousted in a November 2011 recall election, the first legislator in Arizona history to be so removed from office.

He served as Vice-Chair of the Arizona GOP, but he resigned the position in September 2014 after controversy over a eugenicist comment about forced sterilization of poor women on Medicaid.

The vast majority of legal scholars have stated that such a measure would be unconstitutional as the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

The endorsement of the Utah Compact by Pearce's church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), resulted in accusations that Pearce opposed the social stance held by his own church on illegal immigration.

Pearce addressed these accusations by reaffirming that he supports the principles in the Utah Compact such as the importance of the family and showing respect to immigrants.