Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, the cochair of the Progressive Caucus, represents Arizona's Seventh Congressional District.
Arizona's SB 1070 should be struck down by the Supreme Court. The Constitution clearly gives exclusive authority to the federal government over immigration and naturalization issues and over interstate and international commerce. Supporters of SB 1070 have never explained why this exclusive authority is irrelevant. Talking points about state rights don't change the meaning of the Constitution.
The Constitution's supremacy clause intentionally vests powers in the federal government over areas that serve the national interest. The framers wrote the Constitution in order to repair the flaws of the Articles of Confederation and built a system in direct response to the need for a cohesive central government to resolve conflicts between states, create uniformity in currency and measurement, to ease and evenly regulate the flow of commerce, and to create a coherent national policy around issues that were inherently national rather than local, including foreign policy and immigration.
[See a collection of political cartoons on immigration.]
The Constitution states that Congress has the power to "establish a uniform rule of naturalization ... throughout the United States." The federal government has done so. Not for a single day since the founding of this nation have states had the authority to create immigration policy.
Allowing Arizona to write its own immigration law threatens the federal system of governance that has facilitated more than two centuries of American success. It would open the door for a patchwork of wildly differing state standards that undermine the purpose and intent of a cohesive national immigration policy. Those who agree with SB 1070 would do well to consider whether they really want a country with 50 immigration laws. Allowing laws like SB 1070 to exist would burden national and international commerce. Fifty state laws could create 50 different restrictions on the flow of employment and goods and would burden the national tax base and the labor pool. Just as seriously, allowing states to write their own immigration laws would create a legal morass for individuals and families to wade through when making decisions about everything from where to work, where to go to school, whom to associate with and whom to offer a ride home.
[Read: Immigration Reform Is Key to Job Creation.]
The current immigration law is broken. Very few people support the status quo, and I am not one of them. When I first came to Congress a decade ago, I believed we could build consensus around a sensible fix. Unfortunately, years of harmful rhetoric and the unwillingness of many in Congress to find an honest and meaningful resolution to this problem have led this important conversation to the brink of collapse. The actions of Arizona and a number of copycat states have moved this conversation away from Congress, where it belongs and where the Constitution intends for it to take place.
Tags:immigration reform, Supreme Court About Debate ClubA meeting of the sharpest minds on the day's most important topics, Debate Club brings in the best arguments and lets readers decide which is the most persuasive. Read the arguments, then vote. And be sure to check back often to see who has gotten the most support—and also to see what's being discussed now in the Debate Club.
Have ideas about what the Club should be debating? E-mail it to dclub@usnews.com.
You can also join the debate on Facebook or follow Debate Club on Twitter.
Advertisement Cartoons See cartoons on the GOP 2012 hopefuls. See cartoons on the European debt crisis. See cartoons on Barack Obama. Thomas Jefferson Street BlogThe art of coaching kids, as I'm learning, is to make each failure a teachable as well as positive moment.
Relatively minor items on ALEC's agenda have been twisted into the very ugly charge of racism.
A silly girl-fight between two women spares politicians from answering the real issues affecting women.
Obama's nuclear weapons policies are based on nothing more than a collection of untested assumptions.
It was Colson's misdeeds that pointed him in the direction of his greatest accomplishments.
Not everybody identifies with Mitt Romney, but everyone knows and loves a good problem-solver.
Under Obama the National Labor Relations Board is acting as a shill for the unions, helping them expand their reach and power.
The electorate clearly has returned to its 2004 battle lines.
Advertisement SubscribeAn insider's guide to politics and policy, available on the iPad or as a PDF download.
Subscribe today!
See the latest editorial cartoons on President Obama.
Take a look at the potential 2012 presidential candidates.
