U.S. state legislatures to lead the way on immigration laws

Published January 05, 2011

Washington – U.S. state legislatures will be leading the way this year in proposing new immigration laws aimed at tightening the net around undocumented immigrants.

In a rare exception to the anti-immigrant trend, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is backing a bill that will ease college entrance for undocumented students.

The bill supported by O'Malley, a Democrat, is exceptional because the trend across the country is very different.

Randy Terrill, a Republican state lawmaker in Oklahoma, said recently that the federal government's deficiencies in securing the border have forced state governments to "fill the void" and take it upon themselves to combat undocumented immigrants.

In the Nov. 2 elections, Republicans increased by more than 690 seats their representation in state legislatures nationwide, which gives them much more power to promote conservative measures.

The year 2011 will therefore be, observers say, one more page from the same script about groups fighting for and against immigration reform, with little chance of reaching a consensus on the problem of illegal immigration in the United States.

President Barack Obama has promised to keep pushing for immigration reform, in particular the DREAM Act for the legalization of undocumented students who finish more than two years of college or enlist in the Armed Forces.

That bill was blocked in the Senate, and Republicans, who on Wednesday will recover control of the House of Representatives, have made it clear that what is coming are more measures against undocumented immigrants and stricter border control.

Some states seem on their way to becoming genuine battlefields against illegal immigration, promoting measures like Arizona's law SB1070, which criminalizes the presence of illegal aliens in the state.

Though part of the Arizona law has been blocked in federal courts, SB1070 has provided a model for states like Georgia, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, set to consider laws that are similar or even stricter.

At least five states are preparing a concerted effort to eliminate automatic citizenship for children born in the United States of undocumented parents, a right established in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

As in other years, the idea of punishing these children and their parents in this way - in order to discourage illegal immigration - resounds among conservatives but, due to the complicated process of amending the Constitution, remains for now in the realms of rhetoric.

In Maryland since the failure of the DREAM Act, state Sen. Victor Ramirez has been promoting a measure similar to one vetoed in 2003 by the state's then-governor, Republican Robert Ehrlich, which would aid undocumented youths attending Maryland public schools.

The measure, if approved, would allow state universities to charge undocumented students the same tuition paid by residents of the state.

The benefits for the undocumented would be irrefutable: annual tuition and fees at the University of Maryland cost $8,416 for residents of the state, and $24,831 for those classified as non-residents, which is the case with undocumented immigrants.

Ramirez, a Democrat from Prince George's County, says that the Maryland government has already invested in the education of these young people and "it makes sense to give them equal treatment when it comes to their university tuition."

If O'Malley is finally able to enact Ramirez's bill, it would be a kind of oasis among the measures approaching in dozens of states against those living in the shadows.

Activists of the immigrant community say they will not stand idly by in the face of attacks against the undocumented, and, pointing to the growing political power of Hispanics, promise a giant offensive at the polls in 2012 against those who continue blocking the way to immigration reform.

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