A Dramatic Increase in Anti-Immigration State Laws
Put forth on August 14, 2007 by XicanoPwr
Posted in Immigration, Immigration Debate, Raza
La Opinión, a Spanish-language newspaper, recently reported that state legislatures considered nearly three times the number of immigration-related bills than this time last year. In April, state legislators in all of the 50 states had introduced at least 1169 bills and resolutions addressing immigration or immigrant-related issues. As of now, there is a total of 1,404 immigration-related laws proposed. The good news is only 170 were passed in 41 states, however, the bad news, this is is more than twice the total number of bills considered during 2006.
National Conference of State Legislatures President and Texas state Senator Leticia Van de Putte stated that the main reason for the increase has to do with Congress’s failure to approve comprehensive immigration reform. State Senator Van de Putte said:
“Como el barco federal se hundió, hay 50 botes salvavidas en el agua buscando una solución. Una vez más, los estados toman la iniciativa en uno de los asuntos de política pública más críticos que enfrenta nuestro país”
Loosely translated, “The federal boat capsized, there are 50 lifeboats in the water searching for a solution. Once again, the states have taken the initiative to address one of the most critical issues facing us.”
According to the N.Y. Times, although every state debated immigration issues, only 41 states adopted some type of immigration law. A large number of new laws were meant to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Other state laws focused on issues such as driver’s licenses, public benefits, and medical aid as they relate to illegal immigrants.
Cecilia Muñoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, told La Opinión that state and local lawmakers feel pressured to do whatever possible, however, these measures will not be effective and actually do more damage to the Latino community.
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Tags: Immigration, NCLR, undocumented immigrants | 
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This is the blog of Edmundo "XicanoPwr" Rocha, a social worker, an activist, freelance writer and founder and editor of The Sanctuary. My interests include: immigration reform, critical race theory and it's interaction with equality/inequality and freedom/oppression as they relate to the experiences of people of color in the Americas.
Para Justicia y Libertad is a Latino-centered political blog focusing on the humanistic perspective of politics, history, and society as they relate to the Latina/o community throughout Texas and the United States.
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5 Responses to “A Dramatic Increase in Anti-Immigration State Laws”
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Is there any idea what percentage of those bills are anti-immigrant, as opposed to positive ones, like the driver’s license bill? It has to be a large percentage of negative.
That is a very good question, I will have to look into that one. I might update this post on which law will have the most negative effect.
Here is the link to NCSL’s website which has the State Immigration-Related Legislation database.
You can thank the marches for this!
Dude, please tell me you don’t actually believe this and your actually playing devil’s advocate.
No, I really do. Did you read my link? Your thoughts?
Speak your mind
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