State Lawmakers Look To Shield Immigrants from Deportation

Run interference with the feds

As Congress considers major revisions to federal immigration laws, legislators in a few states are trying to block the federal government's power to deport immigrants who land in their jails.

The efforts to pass so-called Trust Acts are essentially the polar opposite of laws passed in Arizona and elsewhere to encourage illegal immigrants to leave their states.  Sponsors want to put the brakes on a wide-reaching federal program, called Secure Communities, that asks state and local police to detain illegal immigrants after an arrest until federal immigration officials can pick them up. Critics of Secure Communities argue that the program leads to the deportation of some people who pose little threat to the public.