Nationwide, states adopted more than 430 immigration-related bills and resolutions last year, a 64 percent increase from 2012.
The National Conference of State Legislatures said in its new report that states seemed to be responding last year to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Arizona’s SB 1070 and the Obama Administration’s deferred deportation program for undocumented children brought to the country when they were young.
Of the measures, 184 were laws, including requiring the use of E-Verify for potential employees and checking immigration status for Medicaid applicants. Eight states decided to give drivers’ licenses to unauthorized residents, including California and Nevada, and four states extended in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants, including Colorado and Oregon.
NCSL said the majority of what states did last year were resolutions. Thirty-one of them urged the federal government to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
