re: #1 Dark_Falcon

I don’t think it’s a ‘States Rights’ argument. I think his reason for the suggestion is that local boards would be less bureaucratic and more able to make individually appropriate decisions.

I read Gingrich’s remarks as a companion piece to the statement he made at the GOP debate on Tuesday. Having a local board is a potential way to ensure you don’t deport someone who has lived in the US for 20 years and has children who are US citizens. So he’s getting what in his mind (and mine as well, if it works properly) is a two-for-one: A more humane (and just plain human) policy for determining if someone should be deported, and decentralization and local control (which can be regarded as federalism in action).

I disagree.

I think Gingrich’s reason for the suggestion is to put the decision in the hands of people who will care about whether the person goes to church, and knows which local churches are the “right” ones. It also takes the decision out of the arena where a person might be entitled to a lawyer.

That would not necessarily make a more humane policy. It sound to me more like feudalism, not federalism.