Border Remorse

There are good reasons to be concerned by undocumented immigration and hope for better policy, but I continue to be struck by how incoherent/sloppy/hostile states' responses are in the absence of federal action.  Piece from The Boston Globe today on "buyer's remorse" experienced by states that pass legislation:

In Alabama, meanwhile, business leaders and lawmakers are feeling the tinge of a new law written with such haste that no one actually can figure out what it means. According to the New York Times, the law states that an individual must provide proof of lawful immigration status for any interaction “between a person and the state or a political subdivision of the state.’’ Vast government resources are now being used to ensure that local pee-wee football leagues are not filled with undocumented Mexican children. 

I visited the border south of Tuscon and in El Paso a number of years ago on a trip exploring border issues.  Among many memories in those nine days spent under a larger sky than I'd ever seen, I recall getting a firsthand look at the water jugs placed by humane organizations for folks who would inevitably brave desert heat (and cold) to get to this country.  There are humans at the center of the debate, first and always.  I also learned how wall-building and border-enforcement had been rather a bipartisan undertaking, from Reagan through Clinton, and how it had mainly had the effect of shifting paperless migration to treacherous mountain regions rather than stemming it.

Despite my skepticism about federal action, though, this is one of those issues where I suspect federal reform would be much preferable to current makeshift state forays into immigration policy.  Federal reform historically has been very imperfect, and would be again, but I think there's a fighting chance national senators would be less influenced by the nativist winds blowing at the state level, because of the political realities of the burgeoning Latino vote, which of course matters more at the statewide level than within a single (possibly gerrymandered) district.  A state senator can still get re-elected with a hardline immigrant platform, the thinking goes, but I suspect it's decreasingly possible for a member of Congress to.  Obama's made some motions toward this; perhaps its something I can hope to give thanks for during a second administration.