Over at Illinois Issues, Daniel Vock has a great run-down of the state's progressive accomplishments on immigrant rights. As statehouses across the nation ramp up their nativist rhetoric and strip undocumented immigrants of rights and benefits, Vock shows how Illinois residents and legislators have bucked the trend:
But even if lawmakers scale back the workplace law, Illinois remains one of the friendliest states for immigrants, legal or unauthorized. It’s opened doors to universities and doctors’ offices for children in the country illegally, and it’s made a concerted effort to help legal immigrants become citizens since 1995 [...]
In education, Illinois is one of 10 states that offers graduates of its high schools in-state tuition regardless of their immigration status. North Carolina lawmakers are considering whether to let unauthorized immigrants enroll in community college, which they were banned from doing until late last year.
As Colorado forbids spending on most public benefits for illegal immigrants, Illinois offers insurance to all children, including the undocumented, under its All Kids plan.
Vock points to several factors contributing to the state's strong support of immigrants, including a long history of immigration, Democratic control of state government, and lawmakers' ability to embed immigrant rights policies in universal plans. But most importantly, he cites the organizing of immigrants as a political force. This was a key factor in Bill Foster's victory in the 14th Congressional District special election, as Joshua Hoyt explained in a recent Progress Illinois column:
Dozens of Latino and immigrant activists were working to “Get Out The Vote” for Foster on Election Day and it is well worth noting that Foster carried the heavily Hispanic City of Aurora with a 3,200 vote margin.
Vock also unintentionally highlights an interesting tension in the GOP, both statewide and nationally.
(More after the jump ...)
By taking hard-line stances on illegal immigration over the last decade, Republicans made short term electoral gains at the expense of sound policy and long-term demographic trends. Now, in swing districts across the country, GOP voters are stuck with demagoguing legislators who are increasingly out of touch with district residents -- immigrants or otherwise. Our own Chris Lauzen is a great example:
Not everyone’s convinced, though, that the only way to win elections in immigrant-heavy areas is with lenient immigration policies.
State Sen. Chris Lauzen, an Aurora Republican, lives in an area where the immigrant population is ballooning. Lauzen notes that Aurora is about 37 percent Hispanic and 11 percent black.
But Lauzen says he still enjoys support from Aurora voters, including Republicans who backed him in his unsuccessful primary bid for a U.S. House seat in February. The people he talks to, he says, think there’s a “clear difference” between immigrants here legally and those here illegally.
Lauzen cast the lone dissenting vote when the Senate agreed to let some undocumented college students get in-state tuition, and he disagreed with the E-Verify restrictions, too.
“People say you have to pander to this demographic — this seismic change. I think that is inaccurate,” Lauzen says.
But it's not pandering when the bills make sense. Maybe he should ask Foster for some advice next time around.
Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flick user DCE.
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