Hawley proposes allowing states to enforce federal immigration law, deport migrants
Sen. Josh Hawley introduced legislation on Tuesday to give states the authority to enforce federal immigration law, which would empower border states and others to implement aggressive deportation operations.
The measure from the Missouri Republican has virtually no chance of becoming law, but is intended to serve as a rebuke of Democratic President Joe Biden’s approach to immigration enforcement. It comes as Republicans nationally are attacking Democrats over immigration ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, charging the Biden administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress with failing stop migrants and drugs from crossing into the United States from Mexico.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, and, more recently, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, all Republicans, have grabbed widespread attention for transporting migrants to liberal-leaning areas. GOP officials in border states, angry with the influx of migrants, have supported sending some elsewhere in the country to prevent a strain on public resources.
Hawley’s proposal would take state involvement to a new level, however. States would be allowed to authorize state and local law enforcement to enforce federal law prohibiting unlawful entry into the country. State prosecutors would be allowed to bring cases in U.S. District Court.
“The Biden Administration’s extreme open border policies have had a devastating effect on the people of Missouri and the entire country. States have had limited ability to fight back during this period of record-breaking illegal border crossings,” Hawley said in a statement.
“My bill would finally give states the ability to enforce federal immigration law and deport illegal immigrants. If Joe Biden won’t secure the border, then it’s time to give states the power to do it.”
Many recently arrived migrants are in the United States legally because they are asylum seekers and are allowed to live in the country while their case is processed. Former President Donald Trump’s administration had required some asylum seekers to remain in Mexico, a practice Biden ended.
Douglas Rivlin, director of communication for America’s Voice, an organization that supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, said constitutional law make it unlikely that Hawley’s proposal will become policy. He cast Hawley’s proposal as part of a larger effort by Republicans to shift the public’s attention away from issues like abortion rights, gun control, democratic elections and immigration.
“Nativism and racism have become central organizing principles of the GOP. Asserting states’ rights is part of the strategy in a frightening echo of the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. It seems like Republicans would prefer that the ‘U’ in USA was silent, allowing for a patchwork of laws on abortion, guns, immigration and individual rights,” Rivlin said in a statement. “This feeds the GOP electoral strategy of pitting those in so-called red states who feel aggrieved against the majority in the rest of the country.”
The United States is experiencing an unusually large number of migrants crossing the border in recent months. In August, people from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua accounted for more than one of three migrants stopped at the border, the Biden administration has said. Authorities stopped migrants 2.15 million times from October through August, the first time above 2 million during the government’s fiscal year.
“Failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, including the recent increase in encounters at the southwest U.S. border,” Chris Magnus, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said earlier this month.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
This story was originally published September 27, 2022, 11:11 AM.
