The Presidential election is about a month away, and one of the major issues of this election has been immigration. Immigration is regulated under federal law, chiefly under the Immigration and
Nationality Act (INA), enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1952, and the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1986 in an effort to curb illegal immigration. The U.S. Supreme Court has has almost universally overruled any state’s efforts to regulate immigration, not only based upon the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, but also to ensure a national standard on immigration rather than various patchwork laws by the individual states. Family law, however, is an area that falls into the control of the individual state’s authority to legislate and govern. Continue reading ›