http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/290662.html

The best-kept secret: Enforcement actually works
By ERNEST ISTOOK
The Heritage Foundation

Once again, the states are rebelling against Washington.

Fed up with dithering in D.C., states are proving that enforcement
works. Enforcement can not only prevent illegal immigration but
actually reverse it.

Illegal immigrants by the tens of thousands are leaving states that
have adopted tough new laws -- Colorado, Georgia, Arizona and now
Oklahoma. Local efforts are being launched too quickly to count,
involving more than 100 communities so far.

When denied jobs or public benefits, many illegals return to Mexico.
Others move within the U.S. to areas with local amnesty policies.

Left-leaning groups are on the move, too, flocking to the courts in
efforts to block state and local enforcement. Only Congress is
standing still -- except for backsliding efforts to push more back-
door amnesty.

The details of the state and local laws vary, but the impact is
consistent. Typically, they deny public benefits to illegal immigrants
and try to make sure that employers don't hire them.

Oklahoma's law kicked in Thursday. Hispanic leaders claim that 25,000
illegal persons departed the Sooner State before the measure went into
effect. Businesses that catered to them say their sales are down 20
percent. They're backing a lawsuit challenging the new crackdown.

But the crackdown is a gain for taxpayers. Estimates show that illegal
immigrants cost Oklahoma taxpayers $200 million a year, mostly for
education and healthcare.

Arizona's new employer sanctions don't start until Jan. 1. A half
million undocumented people supposedly are awaiting the outcome of
court challenges, but The Arizona Republic still reports the
outmigration already tops 100 per day.

Because of Georgia's new law, businesses with an illegal-alien
customer base have seen sales drop as much as 40 percent. And money
wired from Georgia to Mexico and Central America declined. Similar
sales drops are reported elsewhere.

Colorado supplemented its new laws with a special detachment of state
troopers. An Aug. 31 report to the governor said the first month's
results "exceed anyone's expectations," catching 150 illegal
immigrants plus those who smuggle them.

State legislators this year introduced some 1,400 immigrant-related
bills, and 182 became law. Local ordinances were proposed or adopted
in 104 cities and counties.

Bucking the trend is Illinois, which passed a law prohibiting
employers from using a federal database to screen out illegal
immigrants. That's where the litigation trend cuts both ways: The
Department of Homeland Security is suing Illinois to force it to
comply, saying the state can't pick and choose which federal laws to
obey.

Current federal enforcement remains limited, focused on illegals who
have committed violent crimes but not on illegal immigration
generally.

So-called sanctuary/amnesty cities are clearly violating federal law,
as New York City learned from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2000.
It's time for the feds to use that precedent and take other cities and
state scofflaws to court.

The battleground is swiftly shifting into court, where activist judges
are eager to side with border violators. One judge blocked federal
officials from notifying millions of employers that their workers may
be using false Social Security numbers. Hazleton, Pa., had its local
ordinance struck down. More lawsuits are pending. Enforcement works,
but liberals want to stifle it before people realize that.

The big claim is that immigration is solely a federal issue. If
activist judges block state and local enforcement, the public reaction
could rival the anger over decisions about abortion and forced busing.

But there's a difference this time: Those controversial rulings
claimed that the Constitution barred action by any level of
government.

By demonstrating that enforcement works, state and local governments
are clarifying the issues, and tens of thousands of illegal immigrants
are self-deporting. The public outcry that defeated the amnesty bill
this spring has found a new outlet, keeping the heat on Washington all
the way into the 2008 elections.
Ernest Istook is a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He
served 14 years as a Republican congressman from Oklahoma.