States Respond to Federal Immigration Reform Inaction
Feature Story by Lindsey Catlett - 8/15/2007
With Congress failing to approve a broad immigration bill in June, state legislatures are passing an unprecedented amount of immigration legislation.
An August 6 report by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reveals the contrasting solutions to broad immigration reform that state legislatures are pursuing, with undocumented immigrants' rights being further restricted in some states and expanded in others.
"Congress' failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform has really forced the states' hands," said Texas Senator and NCSL President Leticia Van de Putte. "Since the federal ship has sunk, there have been 50 lifeboats in the water seeking a solution. Once again, states have taken the lead on one of the most critical public policy challenges facing our country."
Civil rights organizations like the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights are expressing concern that in the absence of federal reform, different state solutions will be ineffective in solving the broader problem of immigration reform:
"States are struggling to deal with this problem. This is a nationwide issue and there needs to be a federal standard to ensure all immigrants, both legal and illegal, have equal civil and human rights to those of native-born citizens," said LCCR president and CEO Wade Henderson.
According to the NCSL report, 41 states have passed immigration measures, mostly in the areas of employment, access to public services, and state identification card policy.
Arizona lawmakers passed one of the strictest employment bills. Under this new law, employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants face the loss of their business licenses. Employers must also run all job applicants through the Basic Pilot Program, a federal database that checks Social Security numbers against immigration status.
Several states have enacted new laws that prohibit non-citizens from receiving public benefits like healthcare and social services. South Carolina's lawmakers passed a resolution requesting that the governor of South Carolina declare by executive order that no undocumented immigrant "is eligible to receive any services or assistance provided by the department of social services or any other state agency to the extent allowed by law."
In contrast, California is extending all housing, income, and educational support programs to migrant workers in the state. Washington passed a law that makes a $14 million subsidy available for facilities that house low income migrant, seasonal, or temporary farm workers.
Over half of U.S. state legislatures have approved laws to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving driver's licenses. Louisiana now requires that all driver's license applicants be checked in the Basic Pilot Program and the federal Homeland Security terrorism watch list.
Civil rights groups are alarmed by these contrasting policies in various states and the lack of federal immigration policy consensus, but still recognize the importance of the states filling the void in the immigration debate.
"Many of us agree that some state laws are an important first step on the road to that goal of comprehensive immigration reform, because the states are acting when the federal government is not. However, many of the new state policies are unfair and burdensome, and fail to keep up with economic realities," said Henderson.
"America's immigration system clearly needs sweeping changes by the federal government and it needs them soon. This is a moral issue and I believe it goes directly to our most basic understanding of civil and human rights," said Henderson.
