States Increase Efforts against Illegal Immigration


"Three months after the local police inspected more than a dozen businesses searching for illegal immigrants using stolen Social Security numbers, this community in the Florida Panhandle has become more law-abiding, emptier and whiter," reports The New York Times. "Sheriff Wendell Hall of Santa Rosa County, who led the effort, said the arrests were for violations of state identity theft laws. But he also seemed proud to have found a way around rules allowing only the federal government to enforce immigration laws."

Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies, comments:

"The proliferation of state and local laws against illegal immigration is the latest symptom of the failure of the federal government to reform a broken system. The effort is diverting the resources of states and counties governments that should go to fighting violent crime. The only long-term answer to illegal immigration remains comprehensive immigration reform at a national level, including more opportunities for legal immigration."


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