Thread: States Pick Up Where Congress Left Off of Immigration Law

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States Pick Up Where Congress Left Off of Immigration Law
Monday, August 06, 2007
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292227,00.html


BOSTON — State lawmakers are increasingly stepping into the void created by the failure of Congress to approve sweeping changes to immigration policy, a new report finds.

Legislatures have passed bills dealing with a range of immigration issues, from employment and health care to driver's licenses and human trafficking — creating a sometimes uneven patchwork quilt of immigration law across the country.

Arkansas approved a law barring state agencies from contracting with businesses that hire illegal immigrants. Louisiana has a new law barring the state from issuing driver's licenses to foreigners until their criminal background has been checked. Oregon made it illegal for anyone other than lawyers to perform immigration consultation work.

In the first six months of the year, 171 immigration bills became law in 41 states. That's more than double the 84 laws approved in all of 2006, according to the report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, being released Monday at the group's annual meeting in Boston.

More than half of the states have considered bills seeking to toughen or clarify laws related to driver's licenses or other identification. Nineteen have studied immigration laws that would affect the ability of immigrants to find jobs.

While the states have been taking action, Congress failed this summer to pass President Bush's immigration plan, which would have legalized as many as 12 million unlawful immigrants while fortifying the border.

Though immigration previously was largely a concern of border states, it has quickly become a national concern, and lawmakers in all 50 states are weighing legislation this year, according to Sheri Steisel, NCSL immigration policy director.

"Given the absence of federal consensus of national immigration reform, state legislators are stepping into the void and doing their best," Steisel said. "They can't wait. They have to deal with the reality of how immigrants impact their communities now."

However, their newly enacted policies don't always agree, she said.

While Arizona lawmakers passed a bill requiring employers to use a new federal database to avoid hiring illegal immigrants, lawmakers in Illinois passed a bill barring businesses from using the same database, saying it contained too many errors.

"We have states looking at same problem and coming up with different solutions," she said.

In any event, state lawmakers have little choice but to step into the immigration fray, said Leticia Van de Putte, a state senator from Texas and NCSL president.

"This is that one glaring issue that continues to tax our state budgets because of the lack of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level," she said.

A top issue in her home state is human trafficking. One of the nation's main trafficking routes runs through San Antonio and Houston, and a new law set to take effect in September in Texas increases penalties and creates a more exact definition of human trafficking.

Immigrant rights advocates say that while some of the legislation is welcome, they fear some legislators will overreact.

"The downside is that so many states will pass so many different kinds of bills that we will find ourselves in the middle of an unworkable patchwork of laws, many of which will be found unconstitutional," said Rich Stolz, director of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, based in Washington, D.C.

The result isn't always pretty when states step in on issues with national implications, said Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.

"You get a much more haphazard response. It's a much messier solution," he said.

Hi GregaGreatAmerican. I understand that state legislatures are meeting and discussing the topic of illegal immigration. I hope that some of those states that are trying to do something will give courage and wisdom to those who have done little, if anything to cut off magnets and enforce current laws. With the few agents that ICE currently has, more states need to use state and local law enforcement to pick up the ball and run to help enforce immigration laws. All we hear is we don't have room for the illegal aliens, just let them go, or we will have to look into that from the local office of ICE. I believe this is true of most of the states looking to ICE to do enforcement.

Just as Sheriff Arapio needed the head of his local ICE office replaced, this is what needs to occur in every area where ICE agents are not doing their jobs to clean up this problem.

The Chattanoog,TN ICE Office keeps saying they need to make a return visit to a home that harbors illegal aliens and netted 3 fugitives, and yet where are they? They keep saying they are investigating local businesses that allegedly hire illegal aliens and yet, where are they? They keep saying that are investigating other situations, and yet, where are they? What deadly incident, what crime will it take, and yet, where are they?

If some serious thinking took place and a will to do something existed, then this problem could begin to be turned around.

Every state and locality needs to search its codes and use whatever means it can to get rid of this problem plaguing virtually every community.

Psalm 37:5