"Texas may not like the answers it’s likely to get" from the courts regarding its SB 4 law, attorneys Mark Fleming and Charles Bridge write in Bloomberg Law.
The pair dissect the legal case, including Texas’ argument that the U.S. Constitution’s State War Clause allows it to act without congressional approval if "actually invaded." But Arizona tried a similar argument more than a decade ago, and it failed.
"Texas’ attempted end run around Arizona and federal preemption is unlikely to succeed. Invoking the State War Clause depends on equating immigration with invasion — an unsound position as a matter of constitutional text, structure, and history," Fleming and Bridge write.
Separately, even Texas sheriffs who support SB 4 worry over the cost of enforcement, reports John Mone of Scripps News. "We're financially strapped, you know, anything else that would be an unfunded mandate could cripple this county," said Dale Carruthers, county judge of Terrell County, a less populated area of West Texas that includes 50 miles of the border.
Other law enforcement officials, in Texas and beyond, have expressed concerns about SB 4 and similar state efforts.
Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Darika Verdugo and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
‘TO LIVE BETTER’ — As Iowa continues to see a "brain drain" of young people who were born there, immigrants from Mexico and Central America are helping to make up for their absence, reports Simon Montlake of The Christian Science Monitor. In Sioux County, one of the only growing nonurban counties in the state per the 2020 census, newcomers from Mexico and Central America are filling jobs in key rural
industries. "They come here to get a job, to earn money, and to live better," says Carlos Perez, a Venezuelan-born evangelical pastor.
NUANCE — Many residents who live in communities in the Tucson Border Patrol Sector are experiencing internal conflict as crossings there have risen, Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt report for CNN. Retired teacher Paul Nixon recently brought a pregnant migrant woman and her husband to safety, but only after considering the risks. In a separate CNN story, John King reports that many Arizona voters see the border as a part of their community and economy. The conversation about the border and immigration "is more polite, more nuanced, and more focused on solutions than slogans," he writes.
REQUEST FOR SPEED — With thousands of employers at risk of losing immigrant workers because of work permit renewal delays, Democrats in Congress are urging President Biden to expedite an extension, reports Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law. "Employers in our states cannot afford to wait until mid-April to know whether their employees will be able to continue working legally," the lawmakers wrote. "These employers need to be able to plan and operate knowing that their workforce will not be disrupted by abrupt changes in work authorization status."
BRIDGE — A new employment-based visa program that would be market-respondent could help U.S. employers and alleviate pressure at the border, Julia Gelatt of the Migration Policy Institute writes in a Dallas Morning News op-ed. Dubbed the "bridge visa," Gelatt writes that it "would help fill in-demand roles in today’s labor market, provide flexibility to address emerging and future needs, and help bring greater order to the U.S. immigration system."
P.S. For the playlist: The Freakonomics podcast just completed a series on immigration. The small piece I caught over the weekend was worthwhile listening.
