Thursday Immigration Blog Roundup

This week's roundup features mayors' reactions to Arizona's immigration law, a Supreme Court ruling on deportation laws, and more...

On Tuesday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors approved a resolution condemning Arizona's new immigration law. Our own Alan Jenkins has more on that story here. Meanwhile, some Arizona lawyers are concerned that the law, which goes into effect next month, could result in an influx of new cases that might overwhelm the state's court system. And some Arizona lawmakers have proposed an additional law that would deny citizenship to children of illegal immigrants born in the United States.

There's a lot of incendiary rhetoric swirling around the issue of Arizona's law. On Monday, Iowa Rep. Steve King (R) contributed a particularly outrageous quote to the conversation when he claimed that police could perhaps identify illegal immigrants by "the type of grooming they might have."

But it's not all bad news. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision that immigrants who are in the U.S. legally shouldn't be subject to mandatory deportation for minor drug offenses. This is a minor victory—deportation is still possible, just not mandatory—but a victory nonetheless.

And even Texas Governor Rick Perry—so conservative he once suggested that Texas could secede if the rest of the U.S. became too liberal—isn't advocating for his state to follow Arizona's path. At the Texas GOP convention last Friday, the party splintered over a debate on immigration, with 11 of its 32 members advocating a more moderate immigration plank.

Of course, the moderates lost out in the end—the party agreed to incorporate a proposal advocating for a law similar to Arizona's in it's party platform. They also adopted a proposal to "make American English the official language of Texas and the United States," although the impact of this proposal may have been undercut by the party's simultaneous release of a Spanish-language promotional video.