The safest immigrant-friendly states in America

There are extreme differences between states in terms of how pro- or anti-immigrant a state's laws are. In some states, it has become a political and legal battle to protect the rights of immigrants, whether or not a state allows or disallows an immigrant who is (currently) out of status to obtain a state driver's license, or whether or not they should fear the state's police or authorities, e.g. if they check on them while driving, worry about their minor child's education, want to go to a higher education institution, etc.

Some states limit the involvement of state or local agencies in detention and deportation and some require specific assistance from ICE (https://www.ice.gov/ - check here to see who is detained where) or prohibit local governments from creating sanctuary policies - anti-sanctuary laws are intentionally anti-immigrant. While many of these anti-sanctuary laws have been sharply curtailed by federal court rulings, many remain in place.

ICE has built up a vast infrastructure of immigration detention centers, secret electronic surveillance programs, and enforcement agencies; hundreds of thousands of deportations are carried out every year. It uses state and local resources to detain and deport immigrants or empowers state or local law enforcement to act as immigration agents. In response, state legislatures and governors across the country have had to decide whether to adopt pro-immigrant policies to protect their (immigrant) residents or to enact anti-immigrant laws. In defending immigrants' rights, states were given a numerical score from 1 to 5, with "1" being the most harmful and "5" the most protective, details here (interactive map): https://www.datawrapper.de/_/J8P4p.

Immigrant-friendly states
(i) When averaging all parameters, the interactive map shows that two states have particularly strong and comprehensive laws protecting immigrants and fall into the most protective category: Oregon and Illinois.
(ii) Three other states have extensive sanctuary laws: New Jersey, California, and Washington.
(iii) Colorado, Maryland, Vermont, and Connecticut have also enacted laws to ensure that state authorities and agencies do not cooperate with authorities deporting out-of-status persons.
(iv) New York and Rhode Island have taken some small steps to curb harmful anti-immigrant regulations.

Anti-immigrant states
(i) Several states have enacted laws requiring the involvement of local authorities and agencies in the enforcement of out-of-status deportations: Arizona, Montana, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, and Indiana.
(ii) A few states have fairly broad anti-sanctuary laws that significantly negatively impact their immigrant residents: South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama.
(iii) Three states (Florida, Texas, and Iowa) have particularly aggressive and comprehensive anti-immigrant and anti-sanctuary laws that force local authorities to engage in deportations of out-of-status residents.

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