New Report Highlights Immigration Issues Facing States and Localities
Washington, D.C.– A new report released today by the Bipartisan Policy Center highlights the immigration issues faced by states and localities in the absence of federal action to fix a broken immigration system. BPC hosted roundtables in 2017 and 2018 with bipartisan groups of National Association of Counties and National Conference of State Legislatures members from across the country to uncover areas of agreement and divergence about the challenges states and communities face on the topic of immigration.
Over the last decade, issues such as local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities and increasing partisan pressures have pushed more state and local legislators and officials to pick a side in the national immigration debate, sometimes at the expense of the traditional consensus and compromise that was previously more common in state and local government.
While many states and localities continue to find bipartisan ways to address local immigration challenges, officials increasingly want Congress to reform the nation’s immigration laws to bring clarity to the national debate and return state and local governments to their traditional role of serving their constituents, immigrants and native-born alike.