NumbersUSA Unveils State Immigration Enforcement Scorecards Project

ARLINGTON, Va., March 31, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The non-partisan NumbersUSA organization announces a new initiative to comprehensively score all immigration enforcement actions by each state legislator.  

We call this new tool our State Credible Immigration Enforcement Scorecards.

While Congress has the power to lower immigration's numerical limits and control national borders, the States have ample power to credibly enforce laws deterring illegal immigration within their own boundaries.

Today, we unveil the first Scorecards for each state legislator's immigration actions in Ohio and West Virginia (2023 and 2024), North Carolina (2024), and Montana (which met only in 2023).  NumbersUSA will be adding Scorecards for additional states every month.

Creating these Report Cards requires significant effort, including research, data collection, and analysis. NumbersUSA has partnered with the Institute for Legislative Analysis to bring this scoring platform to life. Nobody else has ever offered anything like this deep look into state legislatures on immigration.

"And for the first time, we are negatively scoring leaders such as Speaker of the House and committee chairs when they quietly refuse to bring good bills up for a vote," says Andrew Good, NumbersUSA Director of State Government Relations. "This is a key reason that sensible immigration policies don't pass more frequently in Congress, and it is the main reason that credible immigration enforcement laws often have an uphill battle in the states."

Here are a couple of examples from our pioneer states that explain their poor Leadership grades:

• The Ohio House passed a bill expanding the use of E-Verify last year on an 85-6 vote. But Ohio Senate leaders never allowed a vote on the bill, so it died at the end of 2024.
• The West Virginia Senate passed a mandatory E-Verify bill in 2023, on a 34-0 vote. But leaders in the West Virginia House never allowed a vote on the bill, so it died at the end of their 2023 session.
• In 2024, it looked like victory was guaranteed when the West Virginia House WAS allowed to vote and passed a bill expanding the use of E-Verify on a 82-18 vote. But the Senate which unanimously passed it the year before was barred from doing so again because Senate leaders refused to bring that bill up for a vote. The bill died.

Despite votes for E-Verify from the overwhelming majority of their state legislators, neither Ohio nor West Virginia has any E-Verify law at all, entirely because  legislative leaders carried out the bidding of business lobbies and killed bills by not allowing votes. Our state scorecards expose these backroom deals.

"Join us in celebrating this groundbreaking tool, the first of its kind, and ensure that no state official's role in immigration enforcement goes unnoticed or misrepresented," NumbersUSA CEO Roy Beck says.

Andrew Good notes the immensity of holding state legislators accountable:  "If you think our  Congressional Grade Cards are impressive (and they are!), consider that state legislatures cumulatively introduce 23 TIMES more bills than Congress, totaling an average of 128,145 bills per year. That's a lot of Crackerjack to sift through to find the prizes.

"NumbersUSA is intent on guaranteeing that our elected state officials are transparent in their actions and accountable for delivering the credible immigration enforcement their constituents favor."

About NumbersUSA
NumbersUSA is a nonpartisan organization that for 28 years has educated voters -- particularly its more than 8 million online followers -- about immigration policies and has provided them easy-to-use tools to make their voices heard. It advocates for lower immigration levels and credible enforcement of immigration laws.

Media Contact:
Andrew Good
[email protected]
(703) 816-8820

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SOURCE NumbersUSA.com