State lawmakers waded into the controversial issue of illegal immigration this past week, seeking to address a problem voters have adamantly said they want them to take action on.
      
The Legislature quickly found there was little they could do to curb it. That role is better filled by the federal government, which lawmakers say has failed to enforce the law.
      
The House should be given credit for offering some minor solutions.
      
The measure that passed the House would require employers to check state-issued photo IDs of new employees when they are hiring and sign a form under penalty of perjury to confirm that they checked them.
      
At the insistence of Republicans, the measure would deny bail to illegal aliens who are arrested. Local law enforcement officials would be required to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they arrest someone in the country illegally instead of a "catch and release" policy.
      
The legislation also seeks to reduce the abusive practice of hiring workers as independent contractors rather than regular employees. Democrats say it leaves workers without unemployment benefits and means they aren't eligible for workers compensation if they are hurt on the job.
      
The bill's future remains uncertain in the Senate, with just days left in the legislative session. Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs said they'll consider the measure but gave little idea whether it would be debated.
      
One top Republican is doubtful the measure will ever make it into law and said Democrats would have taken up the measure earlier in the session if they were serious about it.
      
"It's a joke. It's a sham. It's not being honest with Iowans about what their true intentions are," House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said.
      
Either way, at least the discussion has been started. Some states and local governments have moved ahead quickly with laws intended to curb an influx of illegal immigrants only to find out the laws have a downside.
      
Immigrants have been woven into the fabric of many communities and pay an important part of the local economy. When they're forced to leave, local businesses suffer, an unintended consequence of the get-tough measures.

No sunshine here
A stymied attempt to approve an overhaul of the state's open meetings and records laws will go down as one of the big failures of the 2008 legislative session.
      
The Senate took a stab at the daunting task and approved a rewrite of the laws, which are meant to ensure the public has access to government meetings and records.
      
The best part of the bill created a new state agency to enforce sunshine laws, which remains intact.
      
A lack of enforcement has been the problem in the past, meaning citizens who are denied access have to hire a lawyer if they are shut out of a meeting or denied access to records.
      
But a House committee stripped measures that would eliminate the use of so-called "walking quorums," in which officials evade open meetings laws by discussing matters in a series of conversations without a majority of a government body present.
      
They also did away with measures that would make subcontracts between government boards and outside organizations public and a requirement that public boards make the names of job candidate finalists public.

Charlotte Eby is a reporter
for the Lee Enterprises Des Moines bureau. She can be reached at (515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com.