How the Republican Plan for Immigration Reform Repeats the Mistakes of the Drug War

The first piece of immigration legislation to make it out of Congressional committee last year was the SAFE Act, passed by the House Judiciary Committee in June 2013. A few bills followed in July, before the entire reform process grounded to a halt. But with things starting back up again, it's worth revisiting the SAFE Act, and the incredible powers it would bestow on state and local law enforcement.

The SAFE Act, which passed the House Judiciary Committee on a party line vote, would make it a crime to be in the U.S. illegally (currently it's an "administrative violation"). That means undocumented immigrants would not just be deported, they'd serve a jail sentence before deportation. It's an expensive proposition: The Congressional Budget Office estimates the SAFE Act would cost more than $22 billion between 2014 and 2018. The act also encourages states and cities to pass their own restrictive immigration laws, and it tasks local cops with enforcing existing federal law. The act would also encourage police departments to divert resources from policing violent and property crimes in favor of busting up immigrant communities.