Temporarily off the Radar, Immigration Can Become Campaign Issue
Arizona and other states may force the Supreme Court to show its hand on illegal immigration.
by Amiel Ungar
Published: 11/08/11, 10:12 PM

One polarizing issue that is currently off the radar but continues to simmer and could reach a boil in time for the US presidential elections is the topic of illegal immigration.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has appealed to the US Supreme Court's to reverse the ruling of a federal judge barring key provisions of the Arizona immigration enforcement bill. A major provision in the Arizona law would allow the police, while enforcing other laws such as traffic violations, to ask individuals whom they suspected to be illegal immigrants to produce some form of identification.

The federal judge who invalidated these provisions stressed that immigration under the constitution was a prerogative of the federal government and therefore states taking the lead on this issue usurped a federal prerogative. The state of Arizona and other states passing similar laws have argued that the state laws did not contravene federal law but were merely trying to implement it.

The State of Alabama has asked its Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of its law that makes it a crime to rent housing to or to transport illegal immigrants. Contracts with illegal immigrants cannot be enforced.

Representatives of the Episcopal, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches have claimed that the law encroaches on freedom of religion, since religion enjoins humane treatment to one's fellow man irrespective of whether he is a legal immigrant or not. The state of Georgia is roughly in the same position as Arizona.

If the Supreme Court decides to take up the issue, its decision will be published in the middle of the election campaign, forcing the candidates to refer to it.

The states have been busy legislating on the issue. No less than 40 state legislatures have addressed the issue over the past two years.

Some states take a more tolerant approach to illegal immigration; others take a harsher line and some, like Utah, try to blend enforcement of the law against illegal immigration with a guest worker program. T

The states have been forced to act because of the standoff in Congress. Liberals want to provide illegal immigrants with a path towards citizenship ,while conservatives claim that the priority is to seal the border against illegal immigrants.

Arizona has become a symbol of this conflict because the highest number of illegal immigrants enter the US via Arizona.

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