Thread: States pushed to get tough on immigration

States pushed to get tough on immigration

By LEE ROOD • lrood@dmreg.com • April 25, 2010

Comments (34)

Oklahoma City, Okla. — A sweeping state immigration law that went into effect here 2½ years ago has ushered in increased fear among immigrants and tighter checks on hiring, but it has not yielded the mass arrests and deportations once expected.

On Friday, Arizona's governor signed an immigration law that will displace Oklahoma's law for the toughest-in-the-nation title.

Those favoring crackdowns on illegal immigrants say they will mount campaigns in more states, including Iowa, to adopt such laws. Two Republican candidates for Iowa governor said last week they would push for tougher laws if elected.

But experts say the full impact of politically charged laws like the one in Oklahoma isn't yet clear.

After passage of the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007, polls suggested up to 80 percent of residents supported the law. Yet the law's mandates, affecting everything from immigrant employment to housing to public health, remain highly controversial.

Legal setbacks have prevented implementation of some of the law's provisions, and court challenges remain. Still, some anti-illegal-immigration groups call the law a success overall.

"There was an exodus of illegals from Oklahoma, everybody knows that," said Carol Helm, who heads Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now, a citizens group that jump-started the legislation.

In contrast, many policy experts and advocates for immigrants contend hard-liners failed to achieve their desired effect.

"In the beginning, the law was a loud ... dog that barked angrily and nastily," said David Blatt, policy director at the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a nonpartisan state think tank based in Oklahoma City. "But at a certain point, people realized the dog was on a leash and it had no teeth, and they went on about their business."

Hopes are waning on all sides of the immigration debate that Congress and President Barack Obama will take up any serious effort at reform this year.

Partisan fights in Washington - first over health care and now over financial reform and a new Supreme Court justice - are expected to postpone Obama's campaign promise, experts say.

In the absence of a national solution, experts predict contentious battles will be waged in individual states over how best to address the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally.

Groups like FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, have worked to introduce state measures that would deputize local law enforcement agencies to arrest illegal immigrants and provide tough penalties for those who do not leave. The group has pledged to work for legislation in every state.

Dan Stein, FAIR's president, said last week that Oklahoma's law was "the gold standard" for what the organization would like to see passed.

But that was before Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed that state's even more stringent legislation.

Like Oklahoma's law, Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona makes it illegal for people to transport illegal immigrants or hire them.

Those who are undocumented would be charged with trespassing, which could result in jail time and deportation.

The new law also requires local police who have a "reasonable suspicion" to check immigration status, which has raised concerns about racial profiling.

Arizona has struggled to stem smuggling of humans and drugs across its border with Mexico.

The legislation will require foreign nationals to carry proof of legal residency at all times and is expected to increase the jailing of illegal immigrants by the thousands. The law authorizes citizens who don't believe a local police agency is arresting enough people to sue the agency.

Obama and an array of human rights groups criticized the legislation last week as a threat to civil rights.

Helm says she and others in Oklahoma campaigned for House Bill 1804 because they were fed up with an underground economy "that was riding on the back of legitimate taxpayers."

The law, drafted with the aid of Helm's local anti-illegal-immigration group and FAIR, requires more verification of an immigrant's legal status and seeks to penalize those who aid, house, transport or employ them.

Her group contends - but others vociferously disagree - that the 1 percent to 2 percent of Oklahoma's population that is illegal drains millions from the state's economy.

"It was, and still is, an economic problem," she said.

The law sent shock waves through Oklahoma's immigrant communities and the state's economy when it took effect in November 2007. Reports circulated that thousands of employees and schoolchildren had vanished.

Groups like Tulsa's Chamber of Commerce confirmed thousands of immigrants did flee initially to neighboring states or their native countries. But leaders of schools and clinics in heavily Hispanic areas reported their populations soon returned to normal.

A 2009 report by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank on national policy issues, found Oklahoma City and Tulsa public schools - from prekindergarten through 12th grade - experienced no significant declines in Latino or English language learners, while enrollment at some Head Start programs showed an uptick.

A hefty waiting list persists at Santa Fe South High School, a charter school in Oklahoma City that has had greater success than other schools in educating the city's low-income, immigrant youth. Enrollment of undocumented students, about a quarter of the total, has remained unchanged, Principal Chris Brewster said.

"But a lot of families are right on the fringe, facing increased tension, pressure, child abuse and lost jobs," he said.

The Oklahoma law denies illegal immigrants driver's licenses and public benefits such as rental assistance and fuel subsidies.

One of its most controversial provisions makes it a felony crime for anyone - landlord, restaurant owner, husband - to transport, harbor or shelter an illegal immigrant. Some people refused to do business with Hispanics afterward, but law enforcement did not go after those who did, numerous officials and researchers said.

"People have not been rounded up anywhere," said Blatt of the policy institute. "Schools, social service agencies, law enforcement all have been very consistent in saying that serving as an arm of law enforcement is not our mission."

What did happen, officials say, is that thousands more businesses that contracted with the state were required to verify immigrants' status through programs like E-Verify.

The Urban Institute report concluded the law has failed to increase public reporting of undocumented immigrants. But it has created some increased obstacles to immigrants' access to specialized health care and further hindered access to higher education for most undocumented youth, the report found.

Perhaps the greatest lingering effect, however, is that the law has left thousands of immigrant families with difficult choices to make.

Immigration advocates say those who remain in Oklahoma illegally live in a climate of fear - of deportation, of family separation, of life never changing for the better.

Luis, a 17-year-old student at Sante Fe South, said he and other students have no choice but to live in the shadows. With a worse fate awaiting in Mexico, he said, he can only pray for a change in national immigration law.

"Our parents are the ones who did the jobs in this country that no one else wanted to do," he said. "My generation is the one that wants to do something more with our lives, but we aren't being allowed."

—Reporter Lee Rood was one of 15 national fellows to attend a special training program last week in Oklahoma and Texas called "Immigration in the Heartland." Sponsored by the Institute for Justice and Journalism and the University of Oklahoma's Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the fellowships aimed to educate journalists on a wide range of issues surrounding immigration. Interviews with students at Sante Fe South High School in Oklahoma City were part of that experience. The school's principal agreed to allow journalists to interview undocumented students provided last names were not used.



http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... 0335/1001/

"With a worse fate awaiting in Mexico, he said, he can only pray for a change in national immigration law. "

If its bad in Mexico, then it looks like you need to make change THERE.

There it is again!

polls suggested up to 80 percent of residents supported the law

Boom! Ya hear that Obama?

W

I've been reading a lot of comments lately - not just here on ALIPAC but everywhere just to get a feel for how the immigration winds are blowing these days. It's amazing how in just the last few months how this has heated up so rapidly. The comments have gotten angrier and the IA's and their supporters are sadly, pathetically outnumbered and they know it. If Obama pushes for an amnesty, I think chances of a race war are pretty high.

I can't get out of this town fast enough....

They already have started a race war in L.A...Ask the poor black Americans there what its like to be inundated by Racist and Nationalist Mexican gangs...

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

I've been reading a lot of comments lately - not just here on ALIPAC but everywhere just to get a feel for how the immigration winds are blowing these days. It's amazing how in just the last few months how this has heated up so rapidly. The comments have gotten angrier and the IA's and their supporters are sadly, pathetically outnumbered and they know it. If Obama pushes for an amnesty, I think chances of a race war are pretty high.

I can't get out of this town fast enough....

I agree SNT! Americans have had it with illegal invaders! Unfortunately, our president refuses to listen to the majority, in lieu of a small and vocal minority, who contines to push amnesty for illegal invaders.

I do not believe the American people are going to take another amnesty sitting down quietly. It's going to get ugly if obama continues to press this.

Originally Posted by Tbow009

They already have started a race war in L.A...Ask the poor black Americans there what its like to be inundated by Racist and Nationalist Mexican gangs...

Black Americans are being robbed by illegal immigration. They deserve to be mad as hell.

UTAH Rep. Stephen Sandstrom will sponsor the Arizona illegal
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-196236.html

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-196240.html
Texas Politician Proposing Immigration Law Similar to AZ