US Immigration Policy in the Twenty-First Century, with Special Reference to Education: Examining Crosscurrents of Nativist and Accommodationist Policymaking

Abstract

In a development that Charles Dickens might have appreciated, it is the best of times and the worst of times in the US for undocumented immigrant children and young adults. At the macro level, there is an unmistakable anti-immigrant policy trend evident in various state legislatures, resulting in partially discredited and punitive statutes and policies in several states, from Arizona to Alabama and Georgia. A national barometer of interest in this larger issue is the scorecard of how many state legislatures have considered legislation on immigration-related issues. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) issues a report twice each year that details the state-level immigration legislation. This discouraging report card shows that state legislators in 46 states and the District of Columbia introduced 948 bills and resolutions related to immigrants and refugees from January 1 to June 30, 2012. This was a 40 % drop from the peak of 1592 in the first half of 2011, although the state legislatures in Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas did not meet in regular session in 2012. In the first half of 2012, 41 state legislatures enacted 114 bills and adopted 92 immigration-related resolutions for a total of 206, a decrease of 20 % from the 257 laws and resolutions enacted in the same period in 2011. Of course, not all of these statutes were anti-immigrant but the vast majorities were restrictionist. In addition, it appears that the widespread use of E-Verify will lock many states and employers into a required employment verification regime, one sure to be applied against Latinos in the work authorization process. And although there is evidence that the GOP overplayed its anti-immigrant cards in the 2012 federal election and was punished for it, the lessons remain unclear in 2014, and will become clarified only as the contours of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) make their way through Congress.