immigration enforcement at the state and local levels: what should i know?
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Immigration Enforcement at the State and Local Levels: What Should I Know? . Karen Siciliano Lucas, CLINIC January 12, 2012. What are states doing and why? . The blame game. “Attrition Through Enforcement”. Everyone is an immigration agent. Getting people to “self-deport”. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Immigration Enforcement at the State and Local Levels:
What Should I Know?
Karen Siciliano Lucas, CLINIC
January 12, 2012
What are states doing and why?
The blame game
“Attrition Through Enforcement”
Getting people to “self-deport”
Everyone is an immigration
agent
State legislation:
What does state immigration enforcement look like?
• Criminalizing basic actions to sustain self and family• Criminalizing basic acts of Christian charity
• Taking away legal personhood
And then there’s the actual enforcement….
• Restricting access to public benefits, including education• Sanctioning employers who hire unauthorized workers
• Criminalizing lack of federal registration
State police (and citizens) get wide powers:
What does state immigration enforcement look like?
• Georgia’s immigration enforcement board• holding arrestees in jail until status can be verified• automatically denying bail to undocumented
Here are the 2011 state legislative session results….
• warrantless arrests on suspicion undocumented • “reasonable suspicion” at traffic stops
• right to sue and obligation to enforce
2011 State Legislative Session Summary
• Still, of the twenty-five (25) states that threatened in 2011 to pass strong immigration policing bills, only five (5) enacted them into law
• And there are a few more reasons to hope
• States are now free to pass even more employer sanctions bills (17 are already in place)
What happened in Alabama? #crisisAL
• families left schools and communities behind
• water and other utility service threatened
• marriage licenses denied
• provision of health services reduced
• custody and adoption proceedings became a dangerous business
• attorneys turned into immigration agents
What happened in Alabama? #crisisAL
• Attorney General Luther Strange: state employees can’t make independent determination of immigration status
• U.S. District Judge Thompson: state cannot check immigration status for mobile homes
• Governor Bentley says must tweak HB 56
The Latest Came from South Carolina
U.S. District Judge Gergel blocked 3 parts:
• Harboring/transporting
• Registration
• “Reasonable Suspicion”
• Self-Harboring/transporting
State Officials are Called Out
Maricopa County, AZ
Judge Thompson, AL
Judge Gergel, SC
Judge Thrash, GA
U.S. Supreme Court
4 parts of AZ’s SB 1070 will be considered:
• “Reasonable Suspicion”
• Registration
• Solicit or Perform Work
• Warrantless Arrest for Deportable Offense
What have we seen in 2012?
• MO: enforcement, status checks in schools
• CA: not enough signatures to get instate tuition on ballot; guest worker ref.
• IN, AZ: new court challenges
• PA: proof of status for public benefits
• CO: instate tuition variation
Two Danger States 2012
Questions?
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