Immigration: A win for Arizona
The Supreme Court upheld an Arizona law punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
“States do have the right to protect their citizens and their own borders,” said Investor’s Business Daily in an editorial. That’s the clear message sent by the Supreme Court’s decision last week to uphold an Arizona law punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The Obama administration had challenged that 2007 law, on the grounds that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, but that’s “a responsibility the feds have largely shirked.” That’s why Arizona has been requiring companies to check their employees’ legal status on E-Verify, a previously voluntary federal program. The Supreme Court’s pivotal ruling puts an “essential tool for immigration control” in states’ hands, said National Review. In Arizona, the E-Verify law has already proved its worth, with the number of illegal immigrants dropping nearly 18 percent in a year. Now other states can pass their own E-Verify laws, turning this system into a “national standard.”
But E-Verify “isn’t ready for prime time,’’ said the Los Angeles Times. Its computerized databases are often inaccurate, with estimated error rates ranging as high as 12 percent. Nationwide, as many as 4 million legal workers could be wrongly rejected for employment, unless they convince the bureaucracy to correct its records. Accurate or not, this system would “destroy American agriculture,’’ said Frank Sharry in Huffington​Post.com. Up to 75 percent of the laborers who harvest crops are undocumented. And if we deny jobs to 3 million farm workers, Americans will not “return to the fields to pick crops.’’ Instead, farms here will go out of business, and we’ll be forced to “import more of our produce from foreign sources,’’ raising prices for consumers.
That’s what the advocates of illegal immigration always say, said Ross Douthat in The New York Times. But struggling blue-collar workers desperately need the millions of jobs now held by illegal immigrants. By holding employers responsible for whom they hire, E-Verify greatly reduces the demand for illegal workers—proving that government is not powerless to halt the tide of people crossing the border. That could be the first step to a sensible immigration policy like Canada’s, which is focused on attracting millions of highly educated, skilled people from Asia, Africa, and Europe. Our economy needs engineers, not dishwashers. “By learning from Arizona, and becoming more like Canada, we might finally have an immigration policy worthy of the U.S.A.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Baltimore bridge disaster: Who is going to pay and how?
Today's Big Question Politicians, legal experts, and the insurance industry are all grappling with the financial fallout of America's worst infrastructure tragedy in years
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The Week contest: Stick guitar
Puzzles and Quizzes
By The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Xi-Biden meeting: what's in it for both leaders?
Today's Big Question Two superpowers seek to stabilise relations amid global turmoil but core issues of security, trade and Taiwan remain
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published