Congress must act
Published March 22, 2014
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, March 22, 2014.
State legislators rarely paused to think last year while enacting far-reaching policy changes. Regulatory reform, tax reform, election reform, education reform and other issues were rushed into law.
In one area, however, they were smarter. Rather than adopt laws dealing with illegal immigrants in the same hurried fashion, they asked the state Department of Public Safety for a study. The report, just released, raises doubts about the wisdom of enacting many of the new laws under consideration.
An unstated conclusion is that immigration issues are better handled at the federal level, where change is long overdue.
North Carolina legislation proposed last year would restrict the use of some identification documents, authorize police to check immigration status of suspects, require unauthorized immigrants who are jailed to pay for their incarceration, require secured bonds for those arrested, and grant limited driving privileges in some cases.
The report cited a 2011 U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimate that 400,000 unauthorized immigrants live in North Carolina. In 2010, the Pew Research Center estimated that 250,000 were employed here.
That’s a substantial portion of the state’s workforce, and many employers have come to depend on them. The Department of Public Safety said: “Industries that need seasonal labor stated that they could face significant economic impacts if there is a reduction in this workforce.”
DPS expressed uncertainty about the possible effects of some measures but indicated others were clearly unnecessary. Police already can check immigration status during a lawful stop, for example. The study cast doubt on the chances of collecting much money from prisoners for the cost of incarceration.
While none of the measures exactly mimicked laws enacted in some other states and later overturned by federal courts, they could raise anxiety for North Carolina’s immigrant populations, legal and not legal alike.
“The interests of the ‘lawful community’ and the unauthorized immigrant population are often closely intertwined,” the report said. Many families are of “mixed status,” which presents “challenges to neatly separating out the potential impacts of any proposed measures on the lawful immigrant versus unauthorized immigrant communities. ... Enforcement measures targeting only unauthorized immigrants often affect lawful immigrants.”
Those lawful immigrants should not be subjected to unfair scrutiny. But even unauthorized immigrants work, pay bills, raise children and obey the laws just as other people do. Yet, they may live in fear of being asked for their identification, then arrested, deported and separated from their families.
For their sake, and so that individual states don’t have to wrestle with these complexities, Congress owes the country a comprehensive federal solution. It must include strong border security, measures to deal with real criminals within immigrant communities and a means for law-abiding, hardworking unauthorized immigrants to gain legal status and eventual citizenship.
The Senate passed an immigration bill last year but the House is sitting on it, most of its members too fearful of political repercussions to even discuss it.
That’s a shame, because federal inaction too often prompts state-by-state overreaction. Fortunately, for once, North Carolina’s legislature paused to think it over.
