The former Senate president was the primary proponent of Senate Bill 1070, the “show me your papers” law that Arizona adopted, and he rose to prominence as the public face of Arizona’s socially conservative political movement in the early twenty-first century.
He was the first state legislator ever to be called back in Arizona’s history, and that distinction also resulted in his removal from office.
Pearce opposed the country’s direction and fought for harsher immigration and marriage rules, among other things, at the same time as America elected its first Black president. He did this in an effort to make the United States, or at least Arizona, resemble his tiny portion of the East Valley.
Pearce had Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ancestry and was an Arizona native who was born and reared in Mesa. James Pearce, one of the homesteaders who helped found Taylor, was his great-grandfather. Additionally, he appeared to be a natural Republican.
Russell Pearce’s cause of death: How did Russell Pearce die?
A former sheriff’s deputy who later became a state lawmaker and was the mastermind behind one of Arizona’s most organized crackdowns on illegal immigrants in recent memory passed away on Thursday. Aged 75, Russell Pearce.
His sister Kathy Pearce said that he passed away in a hospital in Mesa. According to a family statement, Pearce became unwell earlier in the week.
