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The Immigration Minuet
States and localities legislate while Congress chats
By Angie C. Marek

Posted Sunday, July 16, 2006

In the end, it was the drywall installers and the painters that really got to Andy Anderson. The 37-year-old city councilman and Harley-Davidson motorcycle salesman from Palm Bay, Fla., says he was sick of seeing his fast-growing community be home to construction sites filled with illegal immigrants picked up at the day-laborer spot 10 minutes down Babcock Street. "We don't know a thing about [their] backgrounds ... and we've got lots of young families with kids out here," Anderson says. So he crafted a bill allowing local authorities to issue $200 tickets to companies for each nonlegal worker they employ, and then, if that doesn't work, forbid them to do business in Palm Bay for a minimum of two years. He expects the bill will pass in August.

Right or wrong, there are a lot of Andy Andersons out there right now, taking action in city halls and statehouses nationwide. State legislators have introduced more than 500 immigration-related bills this year, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. It's the natural reaction among Americans frustrated by what seems to be an endless debate in Washington. And with the Senate and House now in the midst of new hearings--possibly putting off negotiations on completing an immigration bill until next year--the rush to pass laws at the state and local levels is only growing more intense.

Last week provided a case in point. In Colorado, legislators meeting in emergency session passed a massive package of legislation that will deny illegal immigrants older than 18 most state benefits, a move that will very likely take up to 50,000 people off state benefit rolls. Meanwhile, the town of Hazelton, Pa., approved legislation fining landlords $1,000 for each illegal immigrant found renting on their property. A flurry of lawsuits is expected to challenge these new laws, but today's reformers are trying to craft their measures narrowly to avoid the fate of efforts like California's Proposition 187, a successful 1994 ballot initiative later overturned in the courts. And the threat of legal action isn't slowing the momentum. "Nobody I know is content with today's status quo," says Andrew Romanoff, the Democratic speaker of the Colorado House. "Washington should take Colorado's hint."

Roadshow. Don't count on it. Although the House passed a tough, enforcement-focused bill in December and the Senate followed in the spring with a more moderate measure, including a guest-worker program, House leaders insisted on conducting hearings around the country in lieu of sitting down to work out a compromise this summer. "I'm not putting any timeline on this thing," House Speaker Dennis Hastert said of the move. "We need this thing done right."

But Michele Waslin of the National Council of La Raza calls the hearings "a political roadshow that makes you stop even guessing when real negotiations begin." She says the two sides could sit down in September; hectic schedules leading up to the November midterm elections, though, could punt it into next year. If that happens, a new Congress--which might look mighty different from this one--would have to start all over on immigration, a process that could take months. It's unlikely city council members and state legislators will be in much of a mood to wait.