SALON

Monday, Aug 6, 2012 10:16 PM UTC

Report: States passing fewer immigration laws

By

Topics: From the Wires,

WASHINGTON (AP) — State legislatures passed 20 percent fewer immigration laws in the first half of this year than at the same time last year, according to a new report by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Lawmakers in 41 states enacted 114 bills and 92 resolutions that dealt with immigration between Jan. 1 and June 30 this year, compared with 257 such laws enacted during the same time period last year, according to the report released on Monday.

States delayed immigration legislation in part as they waited for the Supreme Court to rule on the states’ authority to enforce immigration laws, said John Watkins, a Republican state senator in Virginia who co-chairs the conference’s Task Force on Immigration and the States.

Last June, the Supreme Court upheld a provision from Arizona’s immigration law that allows police to check the immigration status of those they stop for other reasons. Yet, the justices struck down provisions that created state crimes allowing local police to arrest people for federal immigration violations.

Watkins said that the Supreme Court ruling provided “a yellow light, in that states can move forward in some areas, but not in others.”

States’ legislative agendas also had other priorities, including finding solutions to budget gaps.

Washington State representative Sharon Tomiko Santos, a Democrat, said it is now imperative for Congress or the next president to act on the issue.

“The can has been kicked down the road for too long, and states have suffered as a result,” said Tomiko Santos, who co-chairs the task force with Watkins. “Come January, action at the federal level needs to happen.”

Of all the laws enacted on immigration, 18 percent focused on law enforcement and 11 percent on identification and driver’s licenses.

Six states — Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire and West Virginia — enacted laws that dealt with the E-Verify program, which requires businesses to check the legal status of their employees, according to the report.

More Andres Gonzalez.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations