I just read an article attached below. After Arizona passed its controversial immigration legislation, several states jumped on the boat and drafted copycat legislation. However, most of these bills have been abandoned or redrafted or are just not faring well. The reason - state budgets! It costs a lot of money to enforce immigration as with any other law. The federal government tends to focus on criminal aliens. In my opinion, this is largely due to budget constraints. If you only have so much money for this particular function of government, you're going to use it up on the most urgent issue. The federal government considers criminal aliens a higher priority for removal than an otherwise law-abiding illegal aliens.
Arizonans passed their legislation because they felt the federal government wasn't doing its job. Other states have now realized while facing budget problems that the federal government may have been onto something. It's really expensive to enforce immigration measures against peaceful citizens if it requires taking funding away from other sources. I'm glad that states are now realizing what should be a priority even though I'm not glad about the recession.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/28/AR2011012806902.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
