http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_4275362

Toward assimilated community

Conor Friedersdorf
San Bernardino County Sun

Throughout the country, municipal governments are thinking about whether to fine landlords for renting to illegal immigrants.
I think it's a bad idea.

Local laws that target landlords will exacerbate the segregation of illegal Latino and Asian immigrants into enclaves where assimilation is slowed. It will impose an unfair burden on landlords. And the verification process will either burden citizens by requiring them to prove their legal residency, or else subject even legal immigrants to profiling by landlords loathe to be fined $1,000.

But there are local ordinances touching on illegal immigration that I'd support.

Here are a few ideas for local governments that want to address the costs of illegal immigration without unfairly targeting all foreign-seeming people or intruding into the lives of citizens.

Jails are the best place to crack down on illegal immigration. Unlike hardworking illegal immigrants seeking a better life, criminals are unambiguously undeserving of a scarce spot here especially as law-abiding immigrants wait in line to come.

Local governments should mandate that the immigration status of all inmates is determined, that illegal immigrant inmates are noted, and that federal authorities are notified of their existence and their release date.

The law also should require some form of publicity every time federal agents fail to deport illegal immigrant inmates upon their release, shaming the national authorities into doing their jobs.

Cities should create volunteer programs in which legal immigrants can practice English with residents fluent in the language of U.S. democracy. These need not be costly endeavors. Unlike English-as-a-second-language classes, trained teachers and formal classrooms aren't needed only willing citizens. The classes will help integrate immigrants into the community and give them an edge on illegal immigrants when they seek work that is well-deserved because they followed the rules established for coming here.

Be sure that local zoning laws aren't exacerbating the tendency of immigrants to reside within mono-ethnic ghettos. When cities establish neighborhoods that segregate everyone by income, creating some regions of the city for homeowners, others for apartment dwellers and commercial districts for big-box chains in one place and mom-and-pop stores elsewhere, the effect is to concentrate all sorts of groups together whose incomes are similar.

Two unfortunate consequences emerge.

One is that immigrant enclaves are more concentrated than they'd otherwise be, a reality that slows assimilation and ensures immigrants and non-immigrants won't interact very much. The other is that criminals are focused in certain areas that quickly become dangerous, a problem that inevitably spreads to surrounding areas.

This applies to larger cities more than smaller ones.

Dedicate a bigger portion of the municipal budget to police, and target street gangs, smugglers and businesses that use immigrants, whether legal or illegal, as sex slaves. These are among the most sordid activities related to illegal immigration, and a crackdown on these activities is desirable as an end in itself and sure to result in the arrest of some of the worst illegal immigrant criminals.

There is considerable debate about whether local police should be able to enforce immigration law. This column has mixed feelings about that issue, though we think the answer is sometimes yes.

But the above suggestions don't require local police to enforce immigration law at all, and should thus be palatable to voters across the political spectrum who agree that the integration of legal immigrants and the deportation of illegal immigrant criminals are good things.

Neither do these suggestions victimize legal immigrants.

All things considered, they seem like ordinances capable of garnering broad support, and it seems sensible to pass them prior to considering other ordinances of arguable legality and less broad support.

Conor Friedersdorf manages The Sun's blog on immigration issues.