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Immigration And Immigration Policy

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Immigration policy has played an important role on the federal level; however, it has gained momentum in terms of the direct involvement from state and local governments. Over time, state and local governments have become increasingly involved in creating and enforcing immigration policy in response to the federal government’s inability to address this specific issue. The consequences of these policies have generated controversy regarding the ethical, economic, and legal implications of these aggressive immigration policies along with an increase in copycat legislation by other states. Although the federal government has not been able to fully address this issue, it is still an important matter that would be better handled by the federal government in a universal approach as opposed to individual state and local actions. Therefore, this paper will be examining the ways and implications in which state and local governments have attempted to address immigration policy through actions of their own and how that has only reinforced the argument that this specific issue would be better handled in the federal level. With the federal government’s failure to address immigration policy along with high levels of polarization between Democrats and Republicans, states have taken the initiative of directly getting involved in immigration policy. Perhaps the most notable piece of legislation regarding immigration on the state level was Arizona’s passage of SB 1070 in 2010. This law

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