Illegal immigration: Arizona’s retreat
The Arizona state Senate voted down a slate of new anti-immigrant laws.
Common sense has returned to Arizona, said The Arizona Republic in an editorial. Our state drew the wrong sort of national attention last year with a draconian new law requiring state police to check the papers of anyone who might possibly be an illegal immigrant. Last week, however, the Arizona state Senate, including six Republicans, voted down a slate of new anti-immigrant laws that would have denied health care to all illegal immigrants and citizenship to their children. The stunning reversal came after strong lobbying from the state’s business community, which has already lost $200 million as a result of boycotts called to protest last year’s law, and fears the loss of billions more. “Arizona needs jobs,” not more legal battles, and not the stigma of being a state that’s hostile to Hispanics.
If Arizona wants a better model for dealing with the immigration issue, said Daniel Wood in The Christian Science Monitor, it need look no further than the state just to its north—Utah. Utah’s Republican governor this week signed into law what is being called “the Utah Compact”—a pragmatic approach in which the state issues permits to “guest workers” from Latin America, because they’re critical to the state’s economy. Actually, that welcome mat only creates “false hopes for immigrants,” said immigration lawyer Leonor Perretta in The Salt Lake Tribune. It promises work permits and health care to otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants if they pay a fine of up to $2,500—but only if the federal government gives Utah a waiver from existing federal law. That waiver will never come. The Constitution gives the federal government the sole power to make immigration law, and it won’t surrender that power to Utah or Arizona.
That’s why it makes no sense for states to wade into the immigration mess, said The New York Times. Unfortunately, the federal government has been unwilling to address the reality that 12 million people are now living and working in the U.S. without legal documentation. That lack of leadership has created a vacuum that Utah and Arizona are trying to fill. But in the end, “the country cannot have 50 separate immigration systems, 50 separate foreign policies, 50 states following, leading, or stumbling around one another.” States do, however, have a role to play in immigration reform: keeping “the pressure on Congress and the president to fix things the right way, in Washington.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
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.
-
Big Tech's answer for AI-driven job loss: universal basic income
In The Spotlight A new study reveals the strengths and limitations
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
'I will not be silent' on Gaza, says Kamala Harris
Speed Read In a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Harris supported Israel's right to defend itself while expressing a desire to end Palestinian suffering
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
'How long can TikTok dominate as a social network?'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Biden, Trump urge calm after assassination attempt
Speed Reads A 20-year-old gunman grazed Trump's ear and fatally shot a rally attendee on Saturday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Supreme Court rejects challenge to CFPB
Speed Read The court rejected a conservative-backed challenge to the way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, 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