Immigration Federalism as Ideology: Lessons from the States

Laws

Lina Newton¹ 

[1] Political Science Department, Hunter College, CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; E-Mail

关键词: immigration federalism;    state immigration laws;    symbolic politics;   

DOI  :  10.3390/laws4040729

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Over the last decade states passed hundreds of immigration bills covering a range of policy areas. This article considers the recent state legislative surge against scholarly treatments of immigration federalism, and identifies the symbolic politics in state lawmaking. The analysis combines a historical treatment of key court decisions that delineated boundaries of state and federal immigration roles with a legislative analysis of over 2200 immigration bills passed between 2006 and 2013, to identify the numerous ways in which national immigration policy shapes state measures. It argues that recent laws must be considered against symbolic federalism which privileges state sovereignty and justifies social policy devolution by advancing frames of intergovernmental conflict, state-level policy pragmatism, and federal ineffectiveness.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the author; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.