ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by examining the common argument for federalism namely, that by allowing the national policy to accommodate state-specific preferences, federalism reduces intergovernmental conflict and induces efficiency-enhancing policy experimentation. Advocates of federalism argue that policies may be more efficiently produced if their design and implementation are decentralized. The exponential growth since the 1970s in the population of long-term, unauthorized immigrants reflects an extra-legal immigration process that grew alongside legal immigrant entries. Immigration federalism afforded states authority over the most important life opportunities available to immigrants, from securing a job to getting an education, accessing health care, driving a car, or acquiring a license to practice a profession. Conflicts over immigration policy have not only become points of contention between state and federal authorities, but have drawn local and county authorities into disputes with state governments and, increasingly, with the federal government. There is no underestimating the divisiveness of the moral and political issues at stake in immigration policy reform.
