Understanding Government

Pat Quinn

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed the “DREAM Act” into law Monday, legislation that will create privately-funded scholarships for documented and undocumented immigrants to attend public and private colleges in Illinois. The Chicago Tribune’s Monique Garcia reports that Illinois DREAM Act supporters “will continue to fight for comprehensive immigration reform in Washington, noting the new state law is a small but important step forward.” But Washington can’t deal with the federal version of the DREAM Act, much less comprehensive immigration reform. (more…)

Georgia Pabst of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a critical — and flawed — piece Saturday on E-Verify, the joint Dept. of Homeland of Security/Social Security Administration program that makes employers check the citizenship status of their workers. Right now, E-Verify is voluntary — but new legislation would make it mandatory. Pabst implies this would be bad for Wisconsin dairy farmers, the vast majority of of whom employ illegal immigrants. But it could have the positive effect of curbing the exploitation of these workers. (more…)

Homeland Security’s Secure Communities program received another legislative flogging Tuesday when the Los Angeles city council voted nearly unanimously to back legislation allowing cities and towns to opt out of the voluntary program, Paloma Esquivel of the Los Angeles Times reports.

The governors of Illinois, Massachusetts and New York have all refused to sign on to the initiative under which local law enforcement forwards copies of the fingerprints of arrestees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal officials then determine if the arrestees are in the country legally and if not, detain them and begin deportation proceedings.

The resolution, which was approved 11-1, calls for assurances that the program allows communities to opt out and urges that it focus on “truly dangerous criminals.” The program has come under fire for facilitating the deportation of people were arrested but not subsequently convicted of a felony, and those detained for misdemeanor offenses or infractions such as traffic violations.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pulled out of the federal Secure Communities program for deporting illegal immigrants, reports Kirk Semple of the New York Times. Cuomo follows in the footsteps of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and the New York governor echoed Quinn’s complaint that the program hasn’t done what U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said it would do — target immigrants convicted of serious crimes. Cuomo added that the program compromises public safety, impacting the relationship between law enforcement and the Latino community. (more…)

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on an Arizona law allowing the state to revoke the business licenses of firms that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants, the California state Assembly approved a bill making it less likely such immigrants will be deported, according to Dan Walters of The Sacramento Bee.

The bill, which would first need approval from the state senate as well as the governor’s signature, would allow individual counties to opt out of a deal with the federal government under which arrested individuals are fingerprinted and then checked for immigration status. (more…)