CQ HOMELAND SECURITY
Oct. 6, 2008 – 6:52 p.m.
Analysis Shows Immigrant-Friendly Legislation Fares Better at State Level
By Caitlin Webber, CQ Staff
State legislation aimed at expanding immigrant rights have a higher passage rate than those intended to crack down on illegal immigration, according to a new Migration Policy Institute analysis of state legislative data.
MPI, a nonpartisan immigration think tank, teamed up with New York University Law School researchers to catalog state immigration bills introduced in 2007, a record year on the issue, in a searchable online database published Monday.
But despite a flurry of legislative activity, only 167 of the 1,059 immigration measures — 16 percent— were enacted.
Researchers found that the bills covered a wide range of topics, challenging the conventional wisdom that most legislation at the state level seeks to challenge immigration enforcement or employment.
The findings also indicate that a state’s prior experience with immigration significantly affects the type of bills legislators are likely to introduce.
“It’s interesting that politicians in traditional immigrant-receiving states — those that account for two-thirds of the foreign-born population in the United States — were more interested in introducing bills that dealt with immigrant assimilation issues than other types of measures,” said Laureen Laglagaron, MPI policy analyst and an author of the report, which touches on highlights from the database.
The report compares legislative activity in traditional immigrant-receiving states — California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey — with those that recently experienced a big jump in their foreign-born populations. These new immigrant-destination states, including Delaware, South Carolina, Nevada and Georgia, were more likely to pass bills relating to employment, public benefit eligibility and law enforcement.
States with a long history of immigration also had a more diverse docket and were more likely to include legislation related to human trafficking, language services and assimilation.
MPI has made its raw data available and also plans to add figures from 2001 onward, including current legislation.
“I hope that other researchers use it,” Laglagaron said. “Our goal was to make the data available to a wide group of users. . . . We really hope new researchers will take our data and run with it. It’s very rich.”
Comments
ILLEGAL ALIENS are not LEGAL IMMIGRANTS..! I feel sorry for the people who wander blindly into the web of deceit. Because we believe these people who supposedly represent THE PEOPLE. Next year we will know the truth, from either benefactor of the presidency. Obama promises AMNESTY and McCain a Guest Worker program. But to enact either policies, they must first both voted upon by the Congress, Senate and an irate American people. Having more funding thrown into stopping the illegal immigration invasion, is not the answer. We need the main objective of the FEDERAL SAVE ACT (H.R.4088) that will add harsher penalties for parasite employers who hire them, over citizens , build the original planned border fence with an added 20.000 patrolman, military equipment and the mandatory E-VERIFY business worker verification. HELP YOUR LOCAL POLICE! Illegal Immigration is rapidly becoming a urgent flash-point issue, because the this lawbreaking population is out of control. Cities and communities have become violators of immigration law, getting duly labeled as 'Sanctuary cities or even states'? This is no longer isolated communities whose Governors, Mayors and elected officials, who have sold America to the Special interest lobby. SIGN JUDICIAL WATCH, A LEGAL ORGANIZATIONS PETITION, TO RESCIND ALL 'SANCTUARY CITIES & STATES. www.sanctuarybusters.org/?source. www.numbersusa.com to Petition the SAVE ACT. For immigration facts not propaganda or lies, So please sign this petition. www.sanctuarybusters.org/Index.asp?source. Now the middle class already overburdened with war appropriation funds, is still force to pay for the education, free health-care and Federal, state welfare handouts for illegal criminals. SIGN UP FOR THE SAVE ACT(H.R.4088) enforcement 'ONLY' law at www.numbersusa.com. SIGN UP BEFORE NOVEMBER FOR FREE PASS THIS ON Copy, Paste & Distribute freely
Part of the reason is that gutless legislatures don't tell the voters how much their largeness is costing. In Colorado, we are paying between $500 and $900 million per year just for educting illegal aliens and their children. The total costs of our foreign aide is $3 BILLION per year.
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: