Question and answer
Q: Why can’t states enact their own laws?
A: There is nothing to stop states from enacting their own laws. Whether they hold up to legal challenges is another matter. Immigration is largely regulated through the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, which decides who is allowed into the country and for long. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently ruled against state laws that target unauthorized immigrants, finding that federal law preempts state law. Historically, the federal government has expressed concerns that a patchwork of immigration laws in each state would be chaotic.
Q: Why can’t local police arrest unauthorized immigrants?
A: They can if that individual is suspected of committing a crime or had previously been convicted of a felony and deported. In fact, there is nothing to stop a local officer from asking an individual under arrest whether they are in the country legally and to take steps to determine their immigration status. Keep in mind, though, that it is not a crime to be in this country without authorization. That is a civil matter that exposes an individual to deportation.
Q: Then why are some people upset with the laws in Arizona and the one’s proposed in Florida?
A: Those lawsrequirelocal police to determine the legal status of individuals they lawfully stop for others reasons, but suspectare in the country illegally. They also require that legal status be determined before releasing that person from custody, and that all individuals carry documentation proving their legal status or face criminal charges. The Obama administration argues that those laws intrude upon federal law and policy, and that the requirement to determine the legal status of those suspected will lead to racial profiling. In addition, they argue that Congress has consistently rejected efforts to require anyone to carry documentation, and that states lack the authority to criminalize that conduct.
Q: How much does it cost Florida to have unauthorized immigrants living here?
A: For a number of reasons, it’s impossible to say with any certainty. First, the government and private entities that attempt to calculate the financial impact can only guess how many unauthorized immigrants are in the state (the most current government estimate is 720,000). Second, it can only be estimated how much they earn and spend in the communities where they live, and how much the state spends in services provided to them. While they are excluded from most government benefit programs (food stamps, Medicaid and others), states cannot deny them emergency health care or a public education for their children and those costs are primarily borne by the state. State estimates put the number of children of unauthorized immigrants enrolled in K-12 in Florida at about 80,000. However, when both spending and cost factors are considered, the federal government estimates that unauthorized immigrants pose a modest cost to local and state governments.
Q: What’s happening with the law passed in Arizona?
A: The Obama administration challenged the constitutionality of the law. A federal judge considered the arguments and allowed some of the law's provisions to stand while ordering a halt to enacting others while the legal process plays out. Those on hold include the law requiring local police to determine the legal status of individuals they stop for other reasons but suspect might be in country illegally. Also on hold are laws that require individuals to carry documentation proving their legal status or face criminal charges, and that make it a crime for unauthorized immigrants to work or apply for a job. In her ruling, the judge decided the federal government is likely to prevail in its argument that those laws intrude upon federal law or are unconstitutional. Arizona is appealing the injunctions.
Q: What parts of the Arizona law did the judge allow to stand?
A: Among those parts allowed to stand are provisions that make it a crime to stop a motor vehicle in traffic to pick up day laborers and for day laborers to get into those vehicles, and that allow residents to sue their government for failing to enforce immigration laws. Others enhance the penalties for employers who knowingly hire unauthorized immigrants, or amend existing state laws on human smuggling.
Q: What is the federal government doing about immigration?
A: Not much on the legislation front. Proposals to create a "path to citizenship” for unauthorized immigrants failed several years ago, and an attempt last year to provide citizenship to certain students in the country illegally also failed. The federal government provides several programs aimed at helping states identify unauthorized immigrants after an arrest, or when they apply for jobs. Those programs have met with mixed success.
Q: Why do the children of unauthorized immigrants born in this country get automatic citizenship?
A: That can be traced to the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified in 1868 in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision a decade earlier that prohibited slaves or their children from becoming citizens. The amendment reads, in part, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Thirty years after the amendment’s ratification, the Supreme Court upheld the citizenship of a child born in this country to Chinese immigrants who were in the country illegally. Lawmakers eager to crack down on the number of illegal immigrants in the country are considering ways to amend the 14th Amendment or to change federal law to end automatic citizenship for the children of unauthorized immigrants born in this country. According to estimates by the nonprofit Pew Hispanic Center, there are 4.5 million children living in the U.S. who were born in this country to unauthorized immigrants.
Q: Is the population of unauthorized immigrants growing every year?
A: The population tends to mirror the economy. When jobs were plentiful and the economy was humming along in the mid-2000s, the population of unauthorized immigrants in the country spiked at about 11.7million, according to government estimates. As the economy declined, the number dropped to 10.7 million in 2009. Florida’s unauthorized immigrant population peaked in 2005 at nearly 1 million, and dropped to 720,000 in 2009. It’s worth noting that the Pew Hispanic Center has released estimates on the 2010 populations, and they show a slight increase nationally over 2009, the first increase in several years.
Q: What would the impact be on agriculture if unauthorized workers were deported?
A: There would be a significant impact. A random survey filled out by 6,500 crop workers and compiled by the Department of Labor in fiscal years 2001-2002 found 53 percent of them were not authorized to work in the United States. Among all crop workers surveyed, 78 percent were born outside the United States, with majority coming from Mexico. A majority of the studies on immigration and the workplace find Americans do not compete for those jobs.