Congress' inaction on immigration reform fuels states' actions

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WASHINGTON -- When Alabama lawmakers passed the state's new immigration law this summer, they complained they had to act because Congress and the Obama administration had failed to address the pressing issue.

It looks like Congress is still not going to act any time soon.

"We're paralyzed until the next election," said Alabama Republican Rep. Jo Bonner, adding that state lawmakers are "100 percent" right to complain about federal inaction. "We shouldn't have to have 50 immigration laws in our country. This is a matter of national security."

Alabama's new law -- considered one of the toughest in the country -- has turned attention once again to the failed efforts in Congress to overhaul the nation's immigration system. Measures have stalled in Washington, through Republican and Democratic administrations.

Congressional lawmakers have sparred over whether people in the country illegally should be allowed eventually to earn citizenship and whether there should be tougher enforcement of federal immigration laws and more manpower at the southern border.

But people on both sides agree Congress and the administration must tackle the divisive issue.

"The longer it goes without it being addressed the more communities across the country suffer," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrants rights group. "Americans are not served by a broken immigration system."

The conflict between states and the federal government reached the boiling point in April 2010, when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law what was then the nation's toughest immigration law.

The Obama administration challenged the law's constitutionality, and a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing the law's most controversial provisions. The law would have given police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. The state is seeking to revive the law by appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Arizona's action underscored states' frustration with the lack of action by Congress and spurred state legislatures throughout the nation to consider similar measures.

In just the first three months of this year, 1,592 immigration measures were considered by 50 states and Puerto Rico, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. By the end of June, 40 states had enacted 257 laws and resolutions.

Many measures didn't pass in part because of concerns about their constitutionality and the cost of enforcing them, said Ann Morse, program director for NCSL's Immigrant Policy Project.

"State lawmakers are very frustrated because Congress is not addressing immigration reform," said Morse, adding that the last major federal immigration reform was in 1986. "I expect a lively debate again next spring because there's going to be no change federally. ... States continue to return to this issue."

That's what happened in Alabama, said House Majority Leader Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, a co-sponsor of the law.

"We've been working on this for seven years and hoping that as Congress saw the frustration from the states that they would take action," Hammon said.

Alabama's high unemployment rate and state budget woes spurred lawmakers to try and protect jobs for residents, Hammon said.

He said illegal immigrants were coming to Alabama "because I think they viewed us as a sanctuary state."

"To me the federal government ignoring this problem is putting an unfunded mandate on the states. The federal government's job is to enforce immigration law. It's their job to bring legal workers in as we need them," Hammon said. "We are hoping through this that people who do need immigrant labor ... will put pressure on Washington now to correct the broken immigration system."

The Alabama law, signed into law in June by Gov. Robert Bentley, bars state and local agencies from doing business with undocumented immigrants, requires schools to collect information on the legal status of students and allows law enforcement officials during the course of their duties to detain people if they have a "reasonable suspicion" they are in the country illegally.

Last month, a federal judge ruled the state could implement some key provisions of the law, including allowing law enforcement officials to check a person's immigration status.

On Friday, Justice Department officials asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the law, arguing it invites discrimination against foreign-born citizens. Justice officials also have said they are reviewing immigration laws recently passed in Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah.

Hammon said the Alabama law, which was crafted to mirror federal law, should withstand legal challenges.

Advocates, however, argue Alabama lawmakers went too far and should press their own federal lawmakers to advance a comprehensive immigration bill.

They "made a terrible move for the state of Alabama and the country," Noorani said. "They should be holding their senators accountable, particularly Sen. (Jeff) Sessions for standing in the way of pragmatic immigration reform."

Sessions said there is philosophical disagreement over whether to focus on amnesty or more effective enforcement of existing federal law.

"There still remains a gulf," said Sessions, a Republican who has attended immigration meetings at the White House. "The reason it's not happening is because people are blocking it until they get some form of amnesty (for people in the country illegally). ... That's the political battle that's been going on for some time."

With last year's elections, there are more senators who want to "end the lawlessness," so bills proposed in the past that allow amnesty "wouldn't stand a chance today," he said.

Sessions said more states are passing their own laws because federal law enforcement officials aren't enforcing existing laws.

"States are taking steps to do what they can," he said.

Some advocates of reform blame Democrats for not pushing changes when they were in charge of both chambers, and they criticize the Obama administration for lack of action.

Republican President George Bush also failed to advance reforms, but Bonner said the Obama administration has been particularly "AWOL" on the issue.

"This administration has done even less to put it on the table for discussion," he said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended the administration's efforts, pointing to stepped-up border security and increased deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.

She said the administration knows the system needs to be updated and is looking for solutions.

"But Congress hasn't acted and states continue to pass a patchwork of their own laws in an attempt to fill the void," she said last Wednesday in a speech at American University. "Congress needs to take up immigration reform once and for all. We have put forward our ideas and are ready to act quickly and collaboratively to support passage of reforms that make sense."

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., plans to reintroduce a bill that would increase border security, require employers to verify the immigration status of workers and allow some here illegally to get into a program that could help them earn citizenship. He has introduced versions of the bill dating to at least 2004.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., reintroduced a similar bill this summer.

Gutierrez, whose bill has garnered mostly Democratic support, called immigration reform "a victim of pure partisan politics."

"We are not going to see any meaningful immigration reform pass in Washington because the Republicans are not interested in reform or solving problems," said Gutierrez, the chairman of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus' Task Force on Immigration. "They just want to keep throwing money at enforcing the system we have and that hasn't worked for 30 years."

Last December, the House passed the Dream Act, which would allow an avenue to citizenship for young people who were brought here illegally at an early age and who have enrolled in college or entered the military. The measure stalled in the Senate.

The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill last month proposed by its chairman, Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, that would require employers to use E-Verify, an electronic system to verify employees are authorized to work in the United States. The measure faces opposition, including from businesses worried they may not have workers to harvest crops. It's unclear when the measure will move to the House for a vote.

Hammon said he expects other states to follow Alabama's lead, pressuring federal lawmakers and presidential candidates to tackle immigration reform.

"As more states enact laws like ours, Congress will have to act," he said. "They will no longer be able to ignore this problem."