Thread: States Step Into Void on Immigration Law

States Step Into Void on Immigration Law
By STEVE LeBLANC
Monday, August 6, 2007
http://www.townhall.com/news/us/2007/08 ... ration_law

State lawmakers are increasingly stepping into the void created by the failure of Congress to approve sweeping changes to immigration policy, a new report finds.

Legislatures have passed bills dealing with a range of immigration issues, from employment and health care to driver's licenses and human trafficking _ creating a sometimes uneven patchwork quilt of immigration law across the country.

Arkansas approved a law barring state agencies from contracting with businesses that hire illegal immigrants. Louisiana has a new law barring the state from issuing driver's licenses to foreigners until their criminal background has been checked. Oregon made it illegal for anyone other than lawyers to perform immigration consultation work.

In the first six months of the year, 171 immigration bills became law in 41 states. That's more than double the 84 laws approved in all of 2006, according to the report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, being released Monday at the group's annual meeting in Boston.

More than half of the states have considered bills seeking to toughen or clarify laws related to driver's licenses or other identification. Nineteen have studied immigration laws that would affect the ability of immigrants to find jobs.

While the states have been taking action, Congress failed this summer to pass President Bush's immigration plan, which would have legalized as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants while fortifying the border.

Though immigration previously was largely a concern of border states, it has quickly become a national concern, and lawmakers in all 50 states are weighing legislation this year, according to Sheri Steisel, NCSL immigration policy director.

"Given the absence of federal consensus of national immigration reform, state legislators are stepping into the void and doing their best," Steisel said. "They can't wait. They have to deal with the reality of how immigrants impact their communities now."

However, their newly enacted policies don't always agree, she said.

While Arizona lawmakers passed a bill requiring employers to use a new federal database to avoid hiring illegal immigrants, lawmakers in Illinois passed a bill barring businesses from using the same database, saying it contained too many errors.

"We have states looking at same problem and coming up with different solutions," she said.

In any event, state lawmakers have little choice but to step into the immigration fray, said Leticia Van de Putte, a state senator from Texas and NCSL president.

"This is that one glaring issue that continues to tax our state budgets because of the lack of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level," she said.

A top issue in her home state is human trafficking. One of the nation's main trafficking routes runs through San Antonio and Houston, and a new law set to take effect in September in Texas increases penalties and creates a more exact definition of human trafficking.

Immigrant rights advocates say that while some of the legislation is welcome, they fear some legislators will overreact.

"The downside is that so many states will pass so many different kinds of bills that we will find ourselves in the middle of an unworkable patchwork of laws, many of which will be found unconstitutional," said Rich Stolz, director of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, based in Washington, D.C.

The result isn't always pretty when states step in on issues with national implications, said Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.

"You get a much more haphazard response. It's a much messier solution," he said.


Protesters both for and against identification cards that are being issued to illegal immigrants in New Haven, Conn., stand on the steps of City Hall in New Haven, Tuesday, July 24, 2007. More than 100 people, ignoring protesters, lined up outside City Hall Tuesday morning to receive the first identification cards to be issued to illegal immigrants by a U.S. city _ a measure that comes as the immigration debate rages on the national and local levels.



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All illegals just stay out of my state and there will be no confusion, as you will not have to worry about what laws we are enforcing, It should be a states right to protect its citizens, we do pay tax here also and can be heard better in our own states because here we have the opportunity to knock on their door.

States tackle immigration as national moves fail

By Claudia Parsons

Frustrated at Washington's failure to tackle immigration reform at a national level, state legislatures are passing a growing number of local laws on immigration, according to a report released on Monday.

The National Conference of State Legislatures said state lawmakers had introduced roughly 2-1/2 times more bills related to immigration in 2007 than in 2006. So far this year, 170 bills have been enacted in 41 states, up from 84 in 2006.

"Congress' failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform has really forced the states' hands," Texas Senator and NCSL President Leticia Van de Putte said in a statement.

Last month the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to provide an additional $3 billion in emergency spending to beef up border security after lawmakers failed to enact broader immigration reforms championed by President George W. Bush.

Bush had proposed a broad overhaul to address the status of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. The bill, which would have legalized millions of unlawful immigrants, faltered in the Senate because some Republicans considered it amnesty for those who broke U.S. laws and who said it would encourage more illegal immigration.

The report by the NCSL said that by July 2, 1,404 pieces of legislation related to immigration had been introduced among the 50 state legislatures. The 170 that were enacted covered a range of areas from access to healthcare and education to eligibility for public benefits and voting rights.

FROM LANGUAGE TO BENEFITS

The range of bills reflected the divisions on an emotional issue championed by talk radio and bloggers across the political spectrum. Kansas, for instance, passed an act declaring English the official language of the state, while California passed a bill extending all public benefits to migrant workers.

Bush's proposed reform of the immigration system was a key domestic priority, but it met stiff resistance from his own Republicans before next year's presidential elections.

Many opponents said illegal immigrants took jobs from U.S. workers. But employers from Arizona to Texas argued that thousands jobs were going begging through a lack of takers.

In a test case last month, a U.S. federal judge struck down as unconstitutional a local city law on immigration.

The judge said the city of Hazleton, 100 miles north of Philadelphia, was barred from implementing a law that would have penalized businesses that hire illegal immigrants and fined landlords who rent rooms to them.

The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the law as unconstitutional because only the federal government has the right to make immigration law.

Vic Walczak, ACLU's lead counsel in the Hazleton case, said the judge's analysis on federal law trumping local law would be "equally applicable to state laws as it is to municipal laws."

Sheri Steisel, who directs immigration policy for the NCSL, said some of the state laws could potentially end up in court, such as an Arizona measure on employment that she said employers were considering challenging.

But she said state lawmakers were so frustrated at struggling with the problems that they were pushing through bills to fill the federal vacuum.

"Immigration is now a 50-state issue," Steisel said. "This used to be a concern only of the border states."

Of the laws enacted, 26 dealt with employment, for example requiring employers to verify workers' status. Eleven states, including Texas and Montana, passed legislation cracking down on human trafficking, including by imposing stiffer sentences.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070806/pl_ ... RSzngE1vAI

That second article in this thread is WAY TOO BIASED!

Ive added the first one to the homepage with the following note.

ALIPAC NOTE: While it is true that a few states like CA and IL are passing laws to help illegal aliens, the vast majority of state legislation being passed in America is enforcement legislation that moves to detect and deport illegal aliens, cut off taxpayer benefits, and declare English as the official language.


http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=2441