Immigration: States Will Now Take the Reins

In the Education Committee yesterday, I suggested that we ask the federal government to reimburse Utah for the cost of educating children who are here illegally. (D News, Trib and Neil Cavuto – if anyone wants to grab that clip and email me it to me, steveu@infowest.com, I’d like to post it).

The Legislative Auditor estimates that Utah pays between 55- and 85-million dollars to educate children who are here illegally. That’s a lot of money for Utah (about 2 to 3 percent of the State’s expenditures for public education). According to federal law, Utah must educate these children no questions asked. If that’s the case, and if the federal government isn’t going to do anything about immigration, why shouldn’t the feds foot the education bill?

Now, I’m not holding my breath waiting for the check to show up, but I hope the conversation helps send the message that the states are going to move forward on immigration.

I have been one to encourage patience on immigration, reminding colleagues that the federal government has sole constitutional authority to deal with immigration. Like many state legislators, though, I have run out of patience with the ineptitude of our federal government on this issue. If they can’t deal with it, the States will.

States, after all, deal with most complex issues – education, crime, social services, transportation, etc. And, remember, every year (by what must appear to be powerful sorcery to our federal counterparts) states balance their budgets. Waiting on leadership from a group that can’t even balance its own checkbook is a tough thing for state legislators who year-in and year-out make the difficult decisions necessary to govern.

Given Congress’ recent failure to pass meaningful legislation – and fully realizing that Congress lacks the spine and/or ability to get back in the trenches and get the job done – I predict that most states will move forward on legislation to deal with impacts caused by illegal immigration. As Cavuto pointed out, it would be messy, if 50 states started doing their own thing on immigration. But, in my opinion, it’s probably better than doing nothing.

Suggestions?