States of Confusion: The Rise of State and Local Power over Immigration

Abstract

10 Policy Issues" forecast for 2008.' North Carolina is on the leading edge of this trend largely due to the fact that the state has the fastest growing foreign-born population in the country, with an increase of 273.7% between 1990 and 2000. 8 North Carolina has responded at both state and local levels with laws and resolutions that seek to regulate immigration through employment restrictions, limits on government benefits, and criminal law. 9For instance, Gaston and Lincoln Counties in North Carolina have instructed law enforcement agencies to "diligently battle the ever increasing criminal element which is growing daily with the influx of the illegal population and to consistently check the immigration status of each undocumented resident upon his/her arrest."1One might ask what all the fuss is about.The state and federal governments often enforce laws concurrently, especially criminal laws." 1 The reason this flood of state and local actions in the 7.