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ALIPAC in USA Today! States torn on illegals' rights
Posted on Monday, May 02 @ 00:52:48 EDT
Topic: State Laws Immigration illegal legal
|
 5/2/2005
By Charisse Jones, USA TODAY
Topics: state laws, Americans for Legal Immigration, ALIPAC, In-State Tuition, laws, security, licenses, illegal immigration
Debates about illegal immigration are escalating from Arizona to North Carolina as state legislatures weigh whether to grant driver's licenses and other benefits to people who entered the USA illegally.
Some states are moving to restrict the rights of illegal immigrants, while some may expand them. The activity in state capitols mirrors efforts in Congress to grapple with the nearly 11 million illegal immigrants now estimated to be living in the USA, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C.
"I don't think there's anything quite like what we've seen this spring," says Roberto Suro, director of the center, a non-partisan research group on Hispanic issues. "It is remarkable that you're getting proposals in seemingly opposite directions that are both advancing through legislatures."
The proposed legislation comes amid rising concern over the impact of illegal immigration on the job market, schools, health care and other public services. In April, members of a citizens group called the Minuteman Project patrolled Arizona's border with Mexico to report illegal immigrants to authorities. The group plans to expand to California and states along the Canadian border. (Related story: More immigrants, more activists)
Among states taking action:
• The Arizona Legislature approved a measure Thursday that would prohibit police and local and state agencies from accepting ID cards issued by the Mexican Consulate. The cards previously were accepted as proof of identity for public services such as water hookups and library cards. Gov. Janet Napolitano hasn't said whether she'll sign the bill.
• After allowing illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, Utah's Legislature replaced them in February with driver identification cards that cannot be used to board planes or to register to vote.
• In March, New Mexico became the ninth state since 2002 to allow some undocumented students to pay discounted tuition to public colleges, a benefit afforded to state residents. At least 16 other states are studying similar measures, says Ann Morse, director of the Immigrant Policy Project of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
About 30 other states also are considering driver's license legislation. Most measures would restrict driving privileges for illegal immigrants. The debate extends to Congress, which is likely this month to pass the Real ID Act, which would bar states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
"The dam is breaking," says William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, a group based in Raleigh, N.C., that opposes benefits for those in the country illegally. Illegal immigration, he says, is "having a degrading effect on wages and other quality-of-life issues like community health and community safety."
But others say punitive measures are no solution. "When you isolate (and) alienate. .. that's not good for society," says Josh Bernstein of the National Immigration Law Center, an immigrant-advocacy organization in Los Angeles. "You're forcing people out of legal channels and into illegal ones."
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