Some state & local governments are having second thoughts about trying to control immigration through the use of local laws as the cost has proven to be prohibitive and the measures a PR nightmare.
An example of some of the thinking that should have been done beforehand:
“Republican state Rep. Stephen Clark, author of one proposal, wants to delay the bill for a year to study the economic impact of illegal immigrants on the state.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., a Republican, supports a delay, says spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley.
“We are in the process of making major cuts all across the board in government, including public education,” says Clark, who puts the cost of implementing the immigration law at $1.7 million. “We believe now is not the time to invest that money into this issue, especially when we don’t know whether illegal immigration is a financial plus or minus to the state.”
This isn’t surprising as these are merely red-meat election issues not measures that can actually affect migration patterns in any significant measure and it’s not unreasonable to believe that pushing undocumented workers out of your area can have an adverse impact on the local economy either through loss of labor or because the locality is shunned or even sued for discrimination.
A smart comprehensive plan or even something simple like raising visa caps and eliminating the 2A visa category would do a lot to reduce “illegal” immigration if that’s your goal. If your goal is simply to keep the brown people out (as the Americans in the past wanted to keep out the Irish, the Jews, the Italians, etc..) then that boat has sailed.
