Thread: Venue shift on laws for immigrants

Venue shift on laws for immigrants
BY CINDY GONZALEZ
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Congress' latest failure to overhaul federal immigration laws has prompted predictions that more local governments will enact their own remedies to deal with the undocumented population.

Iowa is among states poised to try, said House Democratic Leader Pat Murphy of Dubuque.

He wants the focus to be on corporations that knowingly recruit an illegal work force, possibly by ending state aid to violators or sending executives to jail.

But a Nebraska lawmaker who pushed an unsuccessful bill to issue state driving certificates for illegal workers expects no immigration-related action in the Nebraska Legislature.

State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island says growing division on the topic has paralyzed progress in either direction."

The perception here has been let's wait and see what the federal government does," said Aguilar, Nebraska's voice on a national immigration task force of state legislators. "The recent inaction (by Congress) ensures things will stay on hold."

Elsewhere in the country, frustrated legislators are preparing to fill the void left when the Senate last week stomped out momentum for comprehensive immigration changes until at least after the 2008 elections.

Even before the Senate vote, some local and state officials had taken matters into their own hands by urging immigration-related laws. Now people on both sides of the debate are bracing for an expanding hodge-podge of ordinances ranging from punitive to protective approaches.

"There's going to be a barrage of local laws dealing with immigration policy," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a leading sponsor of the failed bill backed by President Bush. "In some areas of the country, it will be sanctuary. In other areas of the country, if you look at someone who looks illegal, you can lose your business license."

A new group called State Legislators for Legal Immigration hopes to shut off jobs that draw undocumented workers. State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Cranberry Township, Pa., the founder, said the organization includes representatives of 30 states who plan to introduce related bills.

In Nebraska, a second state senator who sponsored an immigration-related bill anticipates no such activity in the next Legislative session.

"I don't see us making much of a dent in immigration problems at the state level," said State Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln who in 2006 won a five-year battle to extend in-state tuition rates to certain illegal immigrant students.

The tuition bill was narrowly adopted over the governor's veto. Aguilar said the climate has since changed.

His attempt this year to issue state driving certificates to illegal immigrants was attacked during a standing-room-only hearing that underscored the growing might of opponents of illegal immigration.

Supporters' claims that public safety would improve were countered by opponents' arguments that the measure would ease life for lawbreakers. Ultimately, the proposal went nowhere.

"The anti-forces get fired up," Aguilar said. "They look for ways to negate what you're trying to accomplish."

On the flip side, he and others think the timing also is off for legislation aimed at ridding the state of its estimated 35,000 to 55,000 illegal immigrants.

"There is a recognition that many of these immigrants are contributing to the economy," said Schimek.

Said Omaha City Councilman Garry Gernandt: "To do something that would possibly jeopardize that part of society's formula may be keeping the State of Nebraska from doing anything."

He and City Council President Dan Welch do not foresee the Omaha council entertaining matters they consider federal domain. Neither do mayors of cities such as Omaha and Kearney.

That's not to say that local officials aren't frustrated, said Lynn Rex, executive director of the League of Nebraska Municipalities. City taxpayers bear some of the cost of illegal immigration. She said local officials are frustrated and want federal guidance on how to respond.

Yet, Rex said, local officials also recognize that many area employers have actively recruited foreigners to fill jobs. "We have a work force issue and we have a legality issue."

Rex said she is not aware of any city officials interested in pressing their own policies or laws. The league recommends that Nebraska cities not try to pick up the slack with such measures, she added.

State legislators in all 50 states this year introduced more than 1,100 bills and resolutions on immigration — more than twice the number introduced last year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Many fizzled but others became law, underscoring the public's growing intolerance of federal inaction.

In Oklahoma, for example, lawmakers recently enacted a law that cuts off illegal immigrants' access to driver's licenses.

Delaware's House just passed a resolution to study the cost of illegal immigration. Its Senate approved a bill requiring contractors paid with public funds to certify workers' legal status.

Some cities and towns also have acted. Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb, drew national attention with its ordinance prohibiting landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. That ban, like many related measures across the country, is being challenged in court.

Other places have been more welcoming. In South Florida, two cities and a county embraced resolutions urging a stop to deportation of undocumented workers.

Thirty-two cities and counties in 16 states, including San Francisco and Seattle, have adopted "sanctuary policies" that encourage a hands-off approach to undocumented immigrants, according to the Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress.

John Gay, a National Restaurant Association spokesman who backed the failed Senate bill, expects that cities and states will jump in where Congress bailed.

He said a past rationale for opposing state and local immigration proposals was that Congress was working on the matter. "We don't have that anymore," he said.

This report includes material from McClatchy Newspapers.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2 ... d=10071021

"There is a recognition that many of these immigrants are contributing to the economy," said Schimek.

I think what we will actually find here is that illegals improve the profit in the bottom line of large companies and do little if anything to lower prices.

"The anti-forces get fired up," Aguilar said. "They look for ways to negate what you're trying to accomplish."



Don't you just love it when they don't realize how silly they sound.
Of course, we are trying to negate it - that's the idea.

By the way, I find it so strange - maybe not - that the legislators with Hispanic names are almost always pro-illegal. Are they Americans or Mexicans?

Originally Posted by avenger

"There is a recognition that many of these immigrants are contributing to the economy," said Schimek.

I think what we will actually find here is that illegals improve the profit in the bottom line of large companies and do little if anything to lower prices.

You are correct! I wish they'd quit trying to sell us this crap. Illegals don't pay state and federal income taxes, they only pay sales tax and taxes related to consumption of goods. If they are paying state and federal income taxes, it's under a false id.

As Avenger says, the economy illegals improve is the bottom line for their greedy employers.