· Montana Public Radio · By Dan Boyce · From the Border Crossing Law Firm media archive.
Montana Public Radio compares both sides of LR-121, which would require proof of status for services including university attendance, unemployment insurance, professional licensing, disability assistance, and crime-victim aid. Shahid argues that the state would pay the federal government to perform immigration checks while denying services that many Montanans believed should remain available regardless of status.
Even a Republican legislative leader supporting the measure acknowledged that Montana did not have a large problem with undocumented use of services; he described the referendum instead as a values statement aligned with laws in Arizona and Alabama.