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
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The Mississippi senate version is wild! Citizen enforcement of immigration provisions? Seems like that could be dangerous in a community where there is any kind of anti-immigrant sentiment at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused about e-verify... aren't employers already required to check that prospective employees have legal authorization to work in the US?
Personally, I'm glad that states are backing off on this issue, even if it's only because of resource constraints, rather than because they've finally seen the light. ;)
I didn't see the Mississippi provision. Why does my home state always have to try to show off for the rest of the nation in this kind of way?
ReplyDeleteE-verify is an electronic way of checking. Now, an employer should get someones ID and SS card. There are a few other documents that would suffice as well. But running the persons information through the government system (e-verify) is not required. Some states are trying to require it, though.