Governor rejects call for special session

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Jim Gibbons rejected a request Monday by U.S. Senate candidate and state Assemblyman Chad Christensen, R-Las Vegas, to call the Legislature into special session to pass a law to stop illegal immigration patterned after Arizona's.

"The governor sees no need for Nevada or another state to adopt such as law if the Reid-Pelosi-Obama administration would just do its job," said Dan Burns, his spokesman. "The control of the borders of the United States is under the exclusive control of the federal government. Chad Christensen and other legislators need to put pressure on the federal government to do its job and protect our borders."

The Arizona law makes it a state crime to be in the state illegally and permits police to question someone about their immigration status if the person was detained on suspicion of violating another law. Critics say the law will lead to racial profiling.

Under the Nevada Constitution, only governors can call legislators into a special session. The next regular session of the Legislature starts in February.

Gibbons' position on Arizona's controversial anti-illegal immigration law remains unchanged from an April 23 debate in Reno when he was the only one of the three Republican governor candidates who would not support the Arizona law.

His opponents, Brian Sandoval and Michael Montandon, both said they supported the Arizona law.

The governor was booed slightly by the audience when he said Nevada does not share Arizona's magnitude of immigration problems because it does not share a border with Mexico.

More than 2,500 people marched against the Arizona law on Saturday in Las Vegas. They called for President Barack Obama to keep his promise and reform immigration laws.

Critics of the Arizona law, including Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., have said the law is akin to racial profiling and might be unconstitutional.

Christensen's call for an Arizona-styled law comes a little more than a month before the June 8 primary and as the Las Vegas assemblyman runs far behind leaders of the GOP pack of a dozen candidates seeking to oppose Reid in the fall general election.

Christensen got support from Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, the sponsor of the Arizona bill, as he called Monday for similar legislation in Nevada.

"Like many Americans, I have had enough of the passive stance of our federal government," Christensen said in a news release. "We have a responsibility to ourselves and our country to empower our law enforcement agencies to uphold the law and hold those breaking the law accountable."

The governor said he supports a system in which illegal residents "ought to go to the back of the line" and take the steps needed to become legal citizens.