The Continuing Immigration Mess

Despite the end of immigration reform in 2007, immigration continues to be the news across the country. And it is not good news — or news that will likely soon go away.

In Suffolk County, New York (here), a local official has opposed day laborer pick up sites and taken on the state government, making himself a popular figure at home.

Prince Williams County, Virginia (here) is considering a law that would enlist police and other government workers in immigration enforcement in a way that ill-fated California’s 1994 Proposition 187 tried to do.

In Baldwin Park, California, tensions flare as local police threaten to enforce a new anti-day laborer ordinance at the local Home Depot.

Interestingly, the mayor of Hazleton, Pa., has long cited a May 2006 shooting death as the impetus for pushing one of the nation’s strictest crackdowns on undocumented immigrants. But AP reports that, on Friday, prosecutors dropped homicide charges against the two undocumented immigrants initially accused of shooting the man.

And the federal government continues to do no better. It currently is threatening to deport a 5 year old, taking her away from her mother (here). And many of you have heard of the U.S. government’s encouragement of high skilled workers to apply for visas (here), which the government now says will not be issued (and likely will end up in a class action suit).

KJ