Extract

AMALIA PALLARES, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGOMARIA DE LOS ANGELES TORRES, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGOSILVIA DÍEZ SASTRE, AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF MADRID



The power to enforce migratory law is held formally, both in Spain as well as in the United States, by superior territorial jurisdictions—the central state and the federal government, respectively. This means that the approval of laws concerning the entrance, permanence, and departure of foreigners takes place at the federal and state levels—subject to the powers of the European Union in the case of Spain. It also means that the administrative and police measures aimed at enforcing compliance with these laws, and thus the control of illegal immigration, takes place at these levels as well. Inferior territorial entities—states, counties, and municipalities in the case of the United States and autonomous communities and municipalities in the case of Spain—assume an immigration management role limited by the implementation of public policies concerning the integration of immigrants. In practice, however, there are overlaps in the exercise of these powers that reveal a more complete map of power distribution. Thus, through funding, the state and federal governments respectively intervene in immigrant integration measures for their part, and the U.S. states and the autonomous communities, as well as municipalities, also intervene more or less directly and more or less decisively in the application of immigrant control measures.