Are the States Moving the Feds to Action on Immigration Reform?
- Time6:37 pm
- Aldo BelloAldo Bello
- Immigration Reform
Shortly after the DREAM Act was historically passed by the House in December of last year (but stalled in the Senate) I wrote about this phenomenon. I was then of a mind that it would only present problems (which it has) but later (August, 2011) amended my opinion to the following:
…there may be a silver lining in this cloud: I am hoping that the pressure being created at the State level, will increase pressure on Congress and the Administration to do something at the Federal level.
In the weeks subsequent to that post, there seems to be general agreement that the states are acting on their own on this contentious issue because they are frustrated with inaction at the Federal level. Whether the states can actually defend their piecemeal legislation in court remains to be seen. The Obama Administration has successfully challenged the constitutionality of various states’ attempts to pass their own immigration legislation and now there’s a high degree of expectation that the decision (on whether the states have the right to pass their own immigration laws) will ultimately fall to the Supreme Court.
Brian Lawson, a Huntsville Times reporter/editor, writes about this very issue, and the recent passage of Alabama’s own version of immigration legislation, in a recent al.com blog post:
But in the debate over the state’s immigration law, it may be Alabama that pulls federal law in a new direction.
The federal courts are still looking at immigration laws in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana and Utah. And South Carolina’s immigration law is set to go into effect Jan. 1.
The patchwork approach that the Justice Department has argued against in court filings seems to be gaining speed.
And the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn last month to leave in place key provisions of Alabama’s law, where similar measures had been blocked by other federal courts, certainly raises the stakes.
Deborah Barfield Berry writes the following post for the Montgomery Advertiser:
In just the first three months of this year, 1,592 immigration measures were considered by 50 states and Puerto Rico, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. By the end of June, 40 states had enacted 257 laws and resolutions.
Many measures didn’t pass in part because of concerns about their constitutionality and the cost of enforcing them, said Ann Morse, program director for NCSL’s Immigrant Policy Project.
“State lawmakers are very frustrated because Congress is not addressing immigration reform,” said Morse, adding that the last major federal immigration reform was in 1986. “I expect a lively debate again next spring because there’s going to be no change federally. … States continue to return to this issue.”
And follows up with this quote by Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security:
“But Congress hasn’t acted and states continue to pass a patchwork of their own laws in an attempt to fill the void,” she said last Wednesday in a speech at American University. “Congress needs to take up immigration reform once and for all. We have put forward our ideas and are ready to act quickly and collaboratively to support passage of reforms that make sense.”
And Campbell Robertsonof The New York Times, says this:
A federal judge on Wednesday upheld most of the sections of Alabama’s far-reaching immigration law that had been challenged by the Obama administration, including portions that had been blocked in other states.
The decision, by Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn of Federal District Court in Birmingham, makes it much more likely that the fate of the recent flurry of state laws against illegal immigration will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court. It also means that Alabama now has by far the strictest such law of any state.
“Today Judge Blackburn upheld the majority of our law,” Gov. Robert Bentley said in a brief statement he delivered outside the State Capitol in Montgomery. “With those parts that were upheld, we have the strongest immigration law in the country.”
Although it seems that things are pointing in the direction, and by this I mean that Congress and this Administration might have to take up the issue of comprehensive immigration reform sooner rather than later, there are certainly no guarantees…and I’m afraid that things are going to get worse before they get any better.