Immigration Battle Shifts To States

In the wake of little federal action on Immigration issues, dozens of state legislators across the country have begun the process of bringing  immigration laws similar to Arizona's controversial anti immigrant legislation SB1070.

Immigration Works USA lists at least 24 states which have at least proposed similar laws to SB1070, that list includes, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Nebraska, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, Idaho, Missouri, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island.

Of those 25 states, at least four seem on the verge of actually passing legislation. Those would be Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina.  Of those states that are left, there are those that can fall into maybe/maybe not. Those states include Tennessee, Nebraska, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, Idaho, Missouri, Kansas. The rest of those states have had outspoken members of their delegations who have said they would like legislation but have little chance of moving forward.

Over the coming weeks NDN will be following the anti-immigrant legislative activity in Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania.  While Florida and Pennsylvania are not in any immediate risk of passing legislation they are both important swing states which also have fairly sizable Hispanic populations.

Julia Preston
of the New York Times has a great primer up on all of this HERE. In the article she outlines how states have gotten to the point where they feel the need to legislate on Immigration. While much of this has to do with the failure of the federal government to act a lot of the legislation being introduced can also be attributed to major gains by the GOP in state legislators across the country:

"Still, the chances of passing many of these measures appear better than at any time since 2006, when many states, frustrated with inaction in Washington, began proposing initiatives to curb illegal immigration. Republicans gained more than 690 seats in state legislatures nationwide in the November midterms, winning their strongest representation at the state level in more than 80 years."

In addition to passing legislation similar  to Arizona style immigration legislation, there is also a groundswell of calls to deny children of immigrants birthright citizenship:

The newest initiative is a joint effort among lawmakers from states including Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri and Pennsylvania to pass laws based on a single model that would deny American citizenship to children born in those states to illegal immigrants. The legislators were to announce the campaign in Washington on Wednesday. A leader of that effort is Daryl Metcalfe, a Republican state representative from Pennsylvania. At a recent news conference, Mr. Metcalfe said his goal was to eliminate “an anchor baby status, in which an illegal alien invader comes into our country and has a child on our soil that is granted citizenship automatically.”

More on this as it develops.