Fordham Law Review Volume 79 Issue 1 Article 11 November 2011 Preemption, Patchwork Immigration Laws, and the Potential For Brown Sundown Towns Maria Marulanda Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Maria Marulanda, Preemption, Patchwork Immigration Laws, and the Potential For Brown Sundown Towns, 79 Fordham L. Rev. 321 (2011). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol79/iss1/11 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Law Review by an authorized editor of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. PREEMPTION, PATCHWORK IMMIGRATION LAWS, AND THE POTENTIAL FOR BROWN SUNDOWN TOWNS Maria Marulanda* The raging debate about comprehensive immigration reform is ripe ground to overhaul federal exclusivity in the immigration context and move toward a cooperative federal and state-local model. The proliferation of immigration-related ordinances at the state and local level reflects “lawful” attempts to enforce immigration law to conserve limited resources for citizens and legal residents. Although the federal immigration statutes contemplate state and local involvement, the broad federal preemption model used to analyze immigration laws displaces many state-local ordinances, resulting in frustration at the inability to enforce the community’s resolve that is manifested through violence against Latino immigrants. Broad federal preemption analyses alter the traditional scope of the states’ police powers, and set the stage for “brown sundown towns”— where Latinos are not welcomed.