Attorney offers update on immigration issues
While an immigration reform measure has so far failed in Congress, federal agencies and state and local governments have gone ahead with measures to address the issue, attorney David Z. Izakowitz said Friday during the School Law Seminar.
Two years ago, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff began taking a harder line, moving from administrative fines to criminal charges against employers who hire illegal aliens. That marked “the beginning of a new era in worksite enforcement with raids, sweeps, and arrests becoming increasingly common,” said Isakowitz, of the McGuire Woods firm in Charlottesville, Va.
As a result of new federal regulations, employers are subject to much tougher regulations on documenting and verifying employees’ citizenship status. Under the E-Verify program, employers must check the records of all new hires, regardless of their citizenship status.
Hundreds of immigration bills were introduced in state legislatures over the past couple of years. Arizona requires all employers to use the E-Verify system, and several states—including Georgia, North Carolina, and Oklahoma—require public agencies to use it.
States have not been able to enact legislation to restrict illegal immigrants’ access to public schools, due to the Supreme Court’s Plyer v. Doe ruling 25 years ago, Izakowitz noted. That decision says states cannot deny a public education to undocumented children residing within their borders.
Since 2001, 10 states have passed laws allowing undocumented youths who graduate from high school to qualify for in-state tuition at a state a college or university, he said. Other states have passed laws to deny tuition aid to undocumented immigrants.
Congress failed to pass the Dream Act, which would have allowed undocumented children who stay in school and keep out of trouble to become permanent residents.
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