BOSTON — State lawmakers are increasingly stepping into the void created by the failure of Congress to approve sweeping changes to immigration policy, a new report finds. Legislatures have passed bills dealing with a range of immigration issues, from employment and health care to driver’s licenses and human trafficking – creating a sometimes uneven patchwork quilt of immigration law across the country. Arkansas approved a law barring state agencies from contracting with businesses that hire illegal immigrants. Louisiana has a new law barring the state from issuing driver’s licenses to foreigners until their criminal background has been checked. Oregon made it illegal for anyone other than lawyers to perform immigration consultation work. In the first six months of the year, 171 immigration bills became law in 41 states. That’s more than double the 84 laws approved in all of 2006, according to the report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, being released Monday at the group’s annual meeting in Boston. More than half of the states have considered bills seeking to toughen or clarify laws related to driver’s licenses or other identification. Nineteen have studied immigration laws that would affect the ability of immigrants to […]