South Carolina Passes Arizona-Style Immigration Law

Arizona once stood alone.

Now Arizona has been joined by Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina which have passed Arizona-style immigration laws. The South Carolina legislature finally passed its own Arizona-style immigration law this afternoon.

The bill now heads to Gov. Nikki Haley who has vowed to sign it.

Technically, Utah should be included among the states that have passed Arizona-style immigration laws. A federal judge has already blocked its enforcement though.

Earlier this year, the momentum seemed to have swung to the pro-amnesty lobby, with one defeat after another being inflicted upon restrictionist forces. Now, the momentum is clearly back on our side.

The tide began to turn around the time Georgia passed its Arizona-style immigration law. Indiana, Virginia, and North Carolina have passed E-Verify. Alabama and South Carolina passed E-Verify and Arizona-style immigration reform. Several states including Texas, Wisconsin, Kansas, and South Carolina passed new Voter ID laws.

The most important victory for restrictionists was the Supreme Court ruling that upheld Arizona’s strong E-Verify law. That cleared the way for the Hazelton ordinance to go into effect.

It opened the floodgates to cities that want to pass Hazelton-style immigration laws against employers and landlords who rent to illegal aliens. In the process, it removed in a single stroke one of the pro-amnesty lobbies favorite arguments.

The Supreme Court will ultimately decide this issue.

It is too soon to tell, but the ruling in favor of Arizona, as well as the other recent ruling in favor of the California DREAM Act, seems to indicate that the Supreme Court will ultimately give the states more authority to pass immigration laws, probably because it doesn’t want to be constantly bothered by lawsuits, and because the federal government is too paralyzed to address the issue.

Should that happen, a dual immigration system would emerge, with Red States like Arizona and South Carolina gradually becoming more inhospitable to illegal aliens, and Blue States like Illinois and Massachusetts adopting a more welcoming policy.

The burden of illegal immigration would be placed squarely upon the Democratic-controlled Blue States. These states would have to compete with Red States who have the power to solve the problem. 

The introduction of competition into the system will quickly eliminate the problem. As the illegals flood into sanctuary states like Washington and Oregon, the natives will soon grow to resent their presence and concentration, and pressure will build to move toward a less accomodating policy.

This can already be seen in Washington State where there is a movement to get rid of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Oregon took that privilege away from illegal aliens a few years ago.

Illegal immigration continues only because of the authority of the federal government to set a pro-amnesty national standard. The slightest crack in that authority could ultimately topple the system.

I will keep you posted.