Immigration Article of the Day: The Right U.S. Immigration Solution: ‘Make Haste Slowly’

“The Right U.S. Immigration Solution: ‘Make Haste Slowly’” MICHAEL LARSON, University of Miami – University of Miami Law Review.

ABSTRACT: The problem with the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement policy is it substitutes Congress’ priorities and strategies for immigration enforcement with its own. An exclusively federal enforcement scheme or one tailored to target only criminal aliens has no support in federal immigration law. Yet the Executive branch continues to distort traditional federal preemption analysis asserting that it is their priorities and strategies that are determinative not Congress’.

Making matters worse, President Obama continues to promise he will pursue comprehensive immigration reform, a process history suggests will be plagued by months of debate and appeasement of special interests resulting in legislation that “look[s] nothing like what was intended.” To stem illegal immigration, the Obama White House must abandon its exclusively federal and selective enforcement model. The long-term answer to illegal immigration is a uniform federal policy centered on intense Federal, State, and local enforcement. An attrition through enforcement model, characterized by (1) greater enforcement of current federal immigration law; (2) cooperative partnerships with state and federal agencies; and (3) vigorous enforcement of state immigration laws that discourage illegal immigrant settlement, represents a realistic strategy alternative to border fences, mass deportation or amnesty, or a reset strategy of comprehensive immigration reform. This scheme stands on solid legal footing as Congress has endorsed a joint enforcement strategy; not an exclusively federal model where states are forced to rely on a detached bureaucracy to deal with their largely local problems.

BLOGGER’S NOTE: I am not sure that I agree. Or, better yet, I am sure that I do not agree. In any event, here is one view.

KJ