Gov. Deval Patrick criticizes US immigration policy and controversial laws in Alabama, Arizona

By Martine Powers, Globe Staff

Using his strongest language yet on US immigration policy, Governor Deval Patrick lambasted the controversial immigration laws in Arizona and Alabama during a speech at Tufts University Monday.

“The actions of various states to take matters into their own hands have been ham-fisted, self-defeating and even racist,” Patrick said.

Patrick’s address, at the Aidekman Arts Center, was part of the “Moral Voices” lecture series sponsored by Tufts Hillel, the university’s center for Jewish life.

Visa procedures in the United States, he said, are “Byzantine,” preventing businesses and universities in the state from recruiting talent from overseas, and discriminating against potential newcomers based on income level.

He continued to say that much of the debate surrounding immigration reform is “hysterical and poisonous.”

“The public discourse about immigration is as toxic today as McCarthyism or Jim Crow were in their time,” Patrick said. “Now, like then, the debate seems to be based more on emotion than reason, more on slogan than fact.”

Much of the blame, he said, lies with political leaders in states like Arizona and Alabama where recent legislation requires that police check the immigration status of any person who is stopped or detained.

“Some are unable to resist the political opportunity to appear ‘tough’ on illegal immigration, such as in states like Arizona and Alabama,” Patrick said.

But Patrick placed the ultimate culpability on the federal government, which, he said, has failed to adequately address US immigration policy.

“It has been the consequence of the failure of action in [Washington] D.C. That much we have to acknowledge,” Patrick said. “The Congress has yet to pass a transportation bill to secure the future of our public infrastructure; has yet to prevent interest rates on student loans from doubling … In the circumstances, it’s no surprise that people want states to do the federal government’s job on immigration.”