State and Local
Finally, an Immigration Bill that Embraces Racial Profiling!
Florida State Representative William Snyder, a former police officer from Miami, drafted his own version of Arizona’s SB 1070 for the state—a bill has the potential to be even more offensive. The bill mimics SB 1070—allowing officers to stop persons based on a “reasonable suspicion” that they are undocumented in order to check their immigration status. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Rep. Synder’s bill actually goes a step further by providing a caveat that the person stopped will be presumed legal if they have a Canadian passport or a passport from a country which participates in our visa waiver program—the majority of which are Western European countries. Naturally, this caveat has groups enraged over the potential for racial profiling. Read More
Which State is Really Going to Be the Next Arizona?
Ever since SB1070 passed through the state legislature in Arizona, aspiring politicians and elected officials have jumped on the rhetorical bandwagon, promising similar legislation in their own states—no matter what the political or fiscal costs. No other state has actually passed copycat legislation, but many have made attempts and overtures towards that end. While observers are waiting to see how far states are willing to go in wrestling control over immigration away from the federal government and into their own hands, nothing will be certain until after next Tuesday’s election. It’s likely some are levying harsh immigration legislation purely as election-time talking points, but there are others who seem to have a bone to pick with immigrants and will likely stake their careers on the pursuit of “attrition through enforcement.” Read More
Which State is Really Going to Be the Next Arizona?
Ever since SB1070 passed through the state legislature in Arizona, aspiring politicians and elected officials have jumped on the rhetorical bandwagon, promising similar legislation in their own states—no matter what the political or fiscal costs. No other state has actually passed copycat legislation, but many have made attempts and overtures towards that end. While observers are waiting to see how far states are willing to go in wrestling control over immigration away from the federal government and into their own hands, nothing will be certain until after next Tuesday’s election. It’s likely some are levying harsh immigration legislation purely as election-time talking points, but there are others who seem to have a bone to pick with immigrants and will likely stake their careers on the pursuit of “attrition through enforcement.” Read More
Office of Inspector General (OIG) Finds 287(g) Program Still Riddled with Flaws
DHS’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released an updated report on the Performance of 287(g) Agreements which provides the same dreary account of the program as the first one. The April 2010 OIG report found that ICE and its local law enforcement partners have not complied with the terms of their 287(g) Memoranda of Agreement (MOAs), that the standards by which deputized officers are evaluated are not in line with the stated objectives of the 287(g) program, that the program is poorly supervised by ICE, and that additional oversight is necessary. It included 33 recommendations to improve the program, 28 of which, the new report finds, still remain open. Read More
Georgia Board of Regents Attempts to Ban Undocumented Immigrants from University System
Last week, the Georgia Board of Regents decided to effectively ban undocumented students from attending 5 of the 61 Universities and Technical College Systems of Georgia starting in the fall of 2011 through a series of admissions provisions. Georgia becomes the second state (after South Carolina) to attempt to prevent undocumented students from attending its universities. This effort comes despite the fact that of the 310,000 students in the Georgia system, only 501 are undocumented—all of whom pay out of state tuition (which more than covers the cost of their instruction). Read More
Another Lawsuit Against Arizona’s SB1070 Moves Forward
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton denied motions by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu last week to dismiss a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs against Arizona law SB 1070. Counsel for the plaintiffs, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, and the National Immigration Law Center, alleges that SB 1070 unlawfully attempts to regulate immigration and would result in widespread racial profiling. The lawsuit is one of seven originally filed against SB 1070. Read More
Supreme Court to Hear Two Cases Affecting Immigrants, Including a Case Challenging a Recent Anti-Immigrant Law
This week, the United States Supreme Court opened its October session. Among the cases it will hear is a challenge to a state law that sanctions employers for hiring unauthorized workers. This is the first case challenging the recent influx of state and local laws attempting to regulate immigrants and immigration and an opportunity for the Supreme Court to assert the federal government’s constitutional right to set immigration law. In the second immigration case, the Supreme Court must decide whether former citizenship law provisions—which imposed a five-year residency requirement for U.S. citizen fathers, but not mothers—violate equal protection. Read More
Utah Leaders Balk at Arizona-esque Immigration Enforcement Bill
With midterm election campaigning well underway, some local candidates are lifting up state and local immigration enforcement legislation as a means to garner public support. Unfortunately, as is often the case when politics meets reality, not everyone is on board with local enforcement laws like Arizona’s SB1070—key provisions of which were enjoined by a federal district judge in late July. Over the last few months, state leaders in Ohio, Idaho, Nebraska and Houston have either heavily edited or voted not to pursue state immigration measures, citing costly lawsuits, court battles and the dubious constitutionality of such laws. This month, state leaders in Utah are also balking at an immigration measure modeled on the controversial Arizona law. Read More
House Republicans Pledge More of the Same on Immigration
It was a week of broken dreams and empty promises for immigration reform. The failure of the Senate to take up the DREAM Act illustrated once again that good policy isn't enough to make legislation work. And over on the House side, GOP members unveiled their “Pledge to America,” a pledge that promises, among other things, more of the same deportation-driven strategies for resolving our immigration crisis. Although the public appears to have an insatiable appetite for talking tough on illegal immigration, if cable shows and Tea Party candidates are your measure of the public taste, catering to the worst of the public's instincts is not a strategy for the long run. Read More
With Recess Over, Where Does Immigration Fall on the Congressional To Do List?
Congress returns on September 13 for one last round of legislating before the November elections. It is a short work period (four weeks) and the prospects for getting things done are, particularly in this gridlocked Congress, not great. Congress watchers predict that the emphasis will be on jobs and the economy, which is not surprising given that this is what’s on voters’ minds. But where does immigration fit into this framework? Read More
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