Immigration politics by proxy: state agency in an era of national reluctance

ABSTRACT

While attempts to reform immigration policy have stalled in the U.S. Congress, statehouses across the country are responsible for an explosion in immigration lawmaking. This study uses an intergovernmental relations framework to identify shifting allocations of authority and contested scales of jurisdiction that now characterise the U.S. immigration policy. It presents an analysis of more than 2200 state bills passed over eight years (2006–2013), and supplements this with a case study of drivers’ licence and identification laws. The study is unique in its consideration of the ways that dispersed authority in multi-level systems may amplify rather than defuse contentious immigration politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigration
• multi-level politics
• intergovernmental relations
• state-level politics
• drivers’ licences
• immigrant integration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Section 5c redefined employment violations as criminal acts, while the national government defined these as civil violations. Section 3 required that aliens register with the federal government, and refusal to do so became a criminal act. Section 6 made allowance for warrantless arrests of immigrants where probable cause existed that they committed a ‘public offense’.

2 ‘Reasonable suspicion’ means a police officer has the sense that an individual is engaged in unlawful activity but has insufficient evidence to make an arrest.

3 Arizona et al. v. United States 567 U.S., 19-21 (2012).

4 Kennedy cited the Court's unwillingness to prematurely nullify this section as ‘it would be inappropriate to assume section 2B will be construed in a way that creates a conflict with federal law’, but also warned the opinion ‘does not foreclose other pre-emption and constitutional challenges to the law as interpreted and applied after it goes into effect’. 567 U.S., 24 (2012).

5 Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982); League of United Latin American Citizens v. Wilson 131 F. 3d 1297 (9th Cir. 1997); City of Farmers Branch v. Villas at Parkside Partners (2010); Lozano v. City of Hazelton, 496 F. Supp. 2d 477(M.D. Pa. 2007); Arizona v. United States (2012).

6 Forty-four states allow governors a partial veto (sometimes referred to as a ‘line-item’ veto) over legislation.

7 To clarify, private bills are those applying to individuals (often citations of recognition for military or community service) or legislation aimed at discrete groups, such as state bills directing agencies to issue birth certificates to children born abroad but adopted by a state's residents.

8 Senator John McCain (R-AZ), running as the Republican nominee had co-drafted the 2006–07 offerings and Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) each ran their primary campaigns as supporters of the Senate proposals.

9 According to DHS, this was down from 24 states in 2012. In December, 2012 ICE announced that it would not renew 287(g) agreements (U.S. ICE 2012).

10 PL 106-386. This subdivision of immigration enforcement uses grants and training from Bureau of Justice Affairs to engage state and local police in recognition and targeting of small or individually run syndicates that might not receive attention from national agencies. State laws range from appropriation of funds for these victims, to reiteration of VTVPA's benefits for victims.

11 Voting rights are protected at the national level by the Voting Rights Act and enforced via the Justice Department.

12 In 2013, Colorado, California, Connecticut Maryland, Nevada, and Vermont joined Washington (1993) and New Mexico (2003) in issuing licences based on ‘proof of residency’, regardless of legal status. The documentation required to establish residency varies by state, as do privileges associated with these licences.

13 The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico also passed expansive identification/driver's’ licence laws in this period.

14 Massachusetts and Missouri initiated the use of drivers’ licences in 1903.

15 Exceptions to the state control rule are Hawaii and Kentucky, where licences are administrated at the county level (www.ncsl.org).