ARLINGTON, Va., March 31,
2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The non-partisan NumbersUSA
organization announces a new initiative to comprehensively score
all immigration enforcement actions by each state legislator.
We call this new tool our State Credible Immigration Enforcement
Scorecards.
While Congress has the power to lower immigration's numerical
limits and control national borders, the States have ample power to
credibly enforce laws deterring illegal immigration within their
own boundaries.
Today, we unveil the first Scorecards for each state
legislator's immigration actions in Ohio and West
Virginia (2023 and 2024), North
Carolina (2024), and Montana (which met only in 2023).
NumbersUSA will be adding Scorecards for additional states every
month.
Creating these Report Cards requires significant effort,
including research, data collection, and analysis. NumbersUSA has
partnered with the Institute for Legislative Analysis to bring
this scoring platform to life. Nobody else has ever offered
anything like this deep look into state legislatures on
immigration.
"And for the first time, we are negatively scoring
leaders such as Speaker of the House and committee chairs
when they quietly refuse to bring good bills up for a vote," says
Andrew Good, NumbersUSA Director of
State Government Relations. "This is a key reason that sensible
immigration policies don't pass more frequently in Congress, and it
is the main reason that credible immigration enforcement laws often
have an uphill battle in the states."
Here are a couple of examples from our pioneer states that
explain their poor Leadership grades:
- The Ohio House passed a bill expanding the use of E-Verify last
year on an 85-6 vote. But Ohio Senate leaders never allowed a vote
on the bill, so it died at the end of 2024.
- The West Virginia Senate passed a mandatory E-Verify bill in
2023, on a 34-0 vote. But leaders in the West Virginia House never
allowed a vote on the bill, so it died at the end of their 2023
session.
- In 2024, it looked like victory was guaranteed when the West
Virginia House WAS allowed to vote and passed a bill expanding the
use of E-Verify on a 82-18 vote. But the Senate which unanimously
passed it the year before was barred from doing so again because
Senate leaders refused to bring that bill up for a vote. The bill
died.
Despite votes for E-Verify from the overwhelming majority of
their state legislators, neither Ohio nor West
Virginia has any E-Verify law at all, entirely because
legislative leaders carried out the bidding of business lobbies and
killed bills by not allowing votes. Our state scorecards expose
these backroom deals.
"Join us in celebrating this groundbreaking tool, the first of
its kind, and ensure that no state official's role in immigration
enforcement goes unnoticed or misrepresented," NumbersUSA CEO
Roy Beck says.
Andrew Good notes the immensity
of holding state legislators accountable: "If you think our
Congressional Grade Cards are impressive (and they
are!), consider that state legislatures cumulatively introduce 23
TIMES more bills than Congress, totaling an average of 128,145
bills per year. That's a lot of Crackerjack to sift through to find
the prizes.
"NumbersUSA is intent on guaranteeing that our elected state
officials are transparent in their actions and accountable for
delivering the credible immigration enforcement their constituents
favor."
About NumbersUSA
NumbersUSA is a
nonpartisan organization that for 28 years has educated voters --
particularly its more than 8 million online followers -- about
immigration policies and has provided them easy-to-use tools to
make their voices heard. It advocates for lower immigration levels
and credible enforcement of immigration laws.
Media Contact:
Andrew Good
agood@numbersusa.com
(703) 816-8820
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SOURCE NumbersUSA.com
