STATES STEP IN WHERE FEDS FALTER.

STATES STEP IN WHERE FEDS FALTER.
All politics are local, but there are fewer political deals to be made at the State level. The problems associated with illegal immigrants are at the national level, but the states are being forced to step up to the plate and find solutions.
Federal efforts to tighten the borders and deport illegal immigrants are insufficient to satisfy the states. This has forced the states to take matters into their own hands. While states have no control over the flow of illegal immigrants, they are responsible for integrating immigrants into their communities. While a community may have plenty of jobs for the illegal workers, they do not have the classrooms and the other services to support these immigrants and their families. The costs of education, medical care, and other social services are creating financial burdens that are not being shared or reimbursed by the federal government.

In Yuma, Arizona hundreds of illegal immigrant Mexican school children walk across the border from Mexico every day to attend middle and high schools in Arizona. The Yuma Union High School District was forced to enforce its residency requirement after a bond measure to build a new school was defeated. Parents whose children live outside of the school district are required to pay $5,300.00 per year for their children to attend one of the six Yuma schools. Only one family was found who complied with the requirement. Parents choose to live in Mexico where median home prices are $30,000.00 and send their children across the border for school in Yuma and San Luis, where the median home price is $179,000.00.
A full-time Border Attendance Officer was hired to check the residency of students crossing the border each day. The Attendance Officer was quoted as saying "They want the American services, but they do not want to be a part of the American system".
In nearby Calexico, California taxpayers' complaints about building schools within walking distance of Mexico led the local district to also hire a full-time Border Crossing Watch Officer to check student addresses.
In 1986 when 12-20 million illegal immigrants were granted amnesty, only a few states were being forced to deal with serious immigration problems. Those states were California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, New York and Illinois. Today, immigration issues affect all 50 states. Illegal immigrants are going Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania where the economies are doing much better.
An illegal immigrant is a walking felony in progress. Illegal immigrants are already in violation of federal law. To pardon the felons, even with sanctions, amounts to amnesty. Citizens know that the sanctions will never be enforced. The Federal Government cannot keep track of the aliens that were pardons in 1986 under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). Employers were required to verify workers’ documents. Every day illegal immigrants who have overstayed their B1 or B2 visas are being “paroled” back into the society with dates to appear in court to answer the charges of violating the immigration laws. Hardly any ever appear in court on the date assigned. Many of these are among the 12-20 million awaiting the next big grant of amnesty. It is getting to be a once per generation phenomenon. Law breakers are being rewarded, while people who obey the laws are being punished with long waits for their petitions to be granted. It is not fair.
With the prospect of comprehensive immigration reform stalled in Congress, states and local governments are passing laws to deal with the economic and social costs of illegal immigrants. More than 1,200 bills have been passed in all 50 states to deal with this problem on a local level. These laws prohibit landlords from renting or leasing to illegal immigrants, penalize businesses for hiring undocumented workers, and require local law enforcement officials to enforce national immigration laws.