Why Illegal Immigration Is an Intergovernmental Mess
Few issues on the US political agenda are so polarizing and divisive as mass-scale illegal immigration. An estimated 11 million illegal aliens lived on the territory of the US in 2007, while some calculations showed 20 million (Shafritz, Russell & Borick, 2015, p. 164). Illegal immigration is an example of a policy on which different levels of government tend to conflict far more often than cooperate due to ambiguity of federal laws and the Constitution on the subject and unfair share of responsibilities between federal, state and local administrations.
The US Constitution never mentions “immigration” at all and only addresses naturalization of citizens on two occasions, both entries being overly vague and hardly helpful nowadays (Shafritz, Russell & Borick, 2015, p. 164). As a result, the current separation of powers between levels of administration is far from efficient. The federal government assumes responsibility over ports of entry, customs, border control and protection as well as penalties for those who have entered US illegally. However, there’s a wide public consensus that the feds’ performance on the issue is far below satisfactory (Shafritz, Russell & Borick, 2015, p. 164). The states, on the other hand, must provide public services to illegal aliens, which often require more help due to poverty and language barriers and contribute less in taxes due to a range of “under the table” employment options. The resulting burden is shared by states and municipalities which receive no reimbursements from Washington D.C. The lack of action on the federal level pushes state and municipal administrations to pass laws themselves, which end up more punitive and discriminative towards illegal aliens.
For the reasons above the immigration problem will continue to produce lots of tension. American law leaves wide gray zones where the proper course of action (as well as which level should take it) is hard to establish. These factors are being worsened by the pressing economic situation in comparison with pre-2008 era and changing demographics, all of which ensures continuous intergovernmental mess because of the illegal aliens in the future.
References
Shafritz, J. M., Russell, E. W., & Borick, C. (2015). Introducing public administration. …
