State reactions to immigration

Ever since Congress abdicated its responsibility and refused to pass immigration reform, numerous state and local governments have been passing their own legislation, often restrictive. Now, however, lawmakers in both Arizona and Colorado want to create their own guest worker programs to deal with labor shortage.

Ironically, Arizona and Colorado are two states that have been at the forefront of punitive legislation (Tom Tancredo is of course from Colorado). Therefore some members of the legislature (even Republicans, I should point out, as this is not always a clearly partisan issue) are trying to counter restrictive legislation they already passed.

Labor rights groups oppose the idea because they are concerned that state-level guest worker programs will lack sufficient protection for the workers (some opponents may also be against guest workers programs on principle).

Ultimately, this particular proposal is currently a moot point, because it would entail states taking over federal duties and therefore is not constitutional, unless Congress expressly delegates that duty. This may simply be a trial balloon--after all, it has not gone up for a vote--but it is yet another example of what a mess Congress has made.