USA: A VIGILANT NATION
-Sudhir Shah, Advocate, Mumbai

As India has Central and State Laws, USA too has Federal and State Laws. Several Bills are submitted every year on different subjects, in the States of India and to the Center for consideration to enact laws. Unfortunately information concerning all those Bills is not available and we are unaware as to what measures are suggested by the Government of Assam, Kutch, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu or Centre to prevent the exodus of illegal immigrants into India. Contrary to this the Immigration Policy Project established by National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) in USA regularly prepares and publishes a report containing overview of different state legislation related to immigrants and immigration.

An April 24, 2008 report of NCSL shows how vigilant USA is concerning immigrants issues. From January 1,2008 till of March 31, 2008 in merely three months time almost 1,106 Bills have been submitted in 44 (out of 50) States of USA, 26 States have enacted 44 laws from this Bills. These laws address enforcement and integration issues related to immigrants. The highest number of Bills submitted this year were relating to Enforcement of Laws concerning immigrants. 198 Bills on this subject were submitted in 35 different States. The question of issuing Driver’s License is also of great concern to the Governments of all 50 States of USA. 35 States had therefore introduced, in aggregate, 192 Bills on the subject of issuance of Driver’s License. Different States of USA are also concerned, in the degree of different variation, about employment of undocumented aliens (illegal aliens). Some Bills therefore deal with the issue of sanctions against the employers for hiring unauthorized workers and suggest use of Federal Employment Eligibility Verification System. 31 States has submitted in all 179 Bills on the subject of employment of undocumented aliens. One Bill has gone to the extent of providing for forfeiture of property of a person present in USA in violation of the Immigration Laws. Some of the Bills presented are pertaining to education and suggested exclusion of unauthorized immigrants from attending higher education facility. Almost 63 bills addressing eligibility requirement for Health Program and Services. Several bills contain proposal to establish certain criteria that must be met with in order to give legal advice to immigrants.

Before the year ends several hundreds more Bills related to immigrants and immigration will be submitted Laws which would be enacted pursuant thereto would largely affect illegal immigrants in USA. These bills show how vigilant a nation USA is. After the Jaipur bomb blast our Government may too also enact laws prevent entry and stay of unauthorized persons in India.