Immigration Law: It's Only A (Very) Small Start At Best

By Ed Howard
Analysis

April 09, 2009

In the political game of dealing with illegal immigration, Oklahoma routed Nebraska this year. It wasn’t close, either.

Oklahoma scored big by enacting a law that requires all employers to verify the resident status of their workers.

The Nebraska Legislature and Gov. Dave Heineman were cautious, figuring to get some points and please the fans by enacting a law requiring state and local government, and employers who have contracts with the state or local governments, to use the Internet-based federal E-verify system.

Heineman and the bill’s chief legislative advocates, including Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, said Wednesday the bill does a lot of worthwhile things for Nebraska and the Hispanic community. Most especially, they said it would assure that those in the state illegally don’t get public benefits and don’t get jobs funded by state or local government.

Meanwhile, one critic said the law is an amnesty for undocumented workers who already have jobs in Nebraska. Another said Heineman had misrepresented the sentiments of the Latino community. More on that later in this story.

In signing the law Wednesday, Heineman called it “a small but important first step by state government.â€