As Congress remains mired in political fights over comprehensive immigration reform, states across the nation have passed or are proposing their own solutions to an influx of undocumented immigrants. Without federal action, some observers fear America may become a checkerboard of states welcoming or restricting immigrants.

One state could give an undocumented worker a driver license, while another would penalize employers who hire those workers. Adjacent states may split on granting in-state tuition to undocumented students, and in some places, state law enforcement officials could inquire about legal status.

That patchwork scenario - already playing out to some degree - has all sides of the issue calling for Congress to act now.

"In the absence of that policy, states have an obligation to step up," says Utah state Sen. Curt Bramble, a Republican who shepherded through legislation to revoke driver licenses for mostly undocumented immigrants and issue them driving privilege cards instead.

"Whether they lack the political will, whether it's just partisan politics, Congress, in both the House and the Senate, has been an abject failure when it comes to immigration policy," he said.

The U.S. House passed a get-tough immigration-reform bill late last year that includes building hundreds of miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, forcing employers to check legal work status and making it a felony to be in the country illegally.

But the Senate version, which failed to get a vote after political bickering over amendments, would have gone much further with a guest-worker program through which millions of illegal immigrants could ultimately become U.S. citizens.

When Congress returns in a week, immigration likely will remain at the top of the to-do list, but it's unclear whether the two chambers, or even the senators themselves, can agree on reform. In the meantime, state legislators are taking aim.

By late February, state lawmakers from 42 states had introduced 368 bills to change immigration laws, including revoking driving privileges, restricting health services and allowing in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, according to a survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Nearly 20 states have proposed or passed legislation that would restrict services to those people who cannot prove citizenship or legal-immigrant status, NCSL says, and 12 states are considering penalties for employers hiring undocumented workers.

Additionally, according to NCSL summaries, Arizona launched a statewide initiative last year to target people making fake identification, and Alabama has trained some troopers to recognize and detain illegal immigrants during traffic stops. Some Florida police officers also can perform some immigration functions, and Illinois started a New Americans Initiative to help immigrants eventually become U.S. citizens.

Besides allowing immigrants to obtain driving-privilege cards, Utah also provides in-state tuition to undocumented students who meet certain criteria. Virginia, meanwhile, has banned driver licenses for illegal immigrants.

"What we see is pretty much inconsistent," says Irina Plumlee, an immigration lawyer with Gardere, Wynne, Sewell LLP in Dallas. "Having too much inconsistency between the states can only lead to heightened problems."

Some states, Plumlee says, will be immigrant-unfriendly, and immigrants will go elsewhere, affecting industries that rely on the less expensive labor force. Some states will take a hit, while others will benefit, she says.

"The federal level is best equipped to balance the equity and the economic needs, looking at it from a broader level," Plumlee says.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. agrees that the federal government needs to fix the immigration system. He and 13 other Western governors unanimously approved a resolution in March calling on Congress to pass comprehensive reform including a guest-worker program and better law enforcement through technological advances.

"There isn't a side," Huntsman says. "As governors, we look at it practically, pragmatically. You cannot wish them away. You cannot unplug them from the services they provide. To try to do so would have a deleterious or harmful effect on our economy."

"The hope is that this generation of dishwashers is the next generation of landowners," he adds.

But before that can happen, Congress likely would have to pass reform that allows a path from illegal status to citizenship. And while waiting for that, states are seeing the spike in the costs of health care, public education and the criminal-justice system, according to Utah's Bramble, who is part of a task force of state lawmakers addressing the immigration issue.

Democratic Rep. Joe Hackney, the House Majority Leader of North Carolina who is chairing that national task force, says more and more states will enact their own laws to deal with immigration, but no matter how much lawmakers do, it won't solve the problems.

"I would characterize that as peripheral or legislating around the edges," Hackney said. "There's a lot of frustration out there that we have a broken system. And the federal government has not fixed the system, and there will be more frustration now that Congress has attempted to fix it and not been successful."

Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the think tank the Manhattan Institute, says states are taking "wild stabs in the dark" trying to quell immigration-related problems but that in some ways the states are "cutting off their nose to spite their face."

Some localities are passing laws that adversely affect their communities, while others are driving immigrants further into the shadows, she says. States may mean well when they pass these laws, Jacoby adds, but it's up to the federal government to lay a groundwork of laws that can be applied everywhere.

"[States are] dealing with the symptoms," she says. "They can't possibly deal with the real problem."

tburr@sltrib.com

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Reporter Rebecca Walsh contributed to this story.