States enacting own immigration reform laws

October 15, 2007

Individual U.S. states are moving ahead with their own immigration legislation.

In Oklahoma, lawmakers have made it a felony to "transport" or "harbor" illegal immigrants.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Congress may be gridlocked on the subject of immigration reform but individual states are moving ahead with their own legislation.

Forty-three states enacted immigration-related laws during the first half of this year, more than double the number approved during all of 2006, The Washington Post reported Monday.

In Illinois state lawmakers passed a measure forbidding businesses from using a federal database to check the legal status of employees while New York is about to give illegal immigrants driver's licenses.

The Tennessee legislature voted to allow law enforcement officers to effectively act as state immigration police and revoked laws granting illegal immigrants "driving certificates," The Post reports.

In Oklahoma, lawmakers have made it a felony to "transport" or "harbor" illegal immigrants.

"The federal government has failed to establish a coherent or rational policy, and as a consequence, we are left to deal with this on a state level," New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer told the Post in an interview.