Sen. Delph’s SB 335 regarding illegal aliens passed out of the House Public Policy Committee on a 7-4 vote after being amended. Bill Ruthhart, writing for the Indy Star, has an informative article on the changes made in the House Committee.
The major changes made by the House Committee:
#The three strikes period was shortened from 10 years to 5 years.
#Enforcement will be by the state Department of Labor rather than by county prosecutors.
#Enforcement funding of $1.5 million was added.
#An exemption for seasonal workers was removed.
The addition of the $1.5 million in funding means that the bill will now move to the House Ways & Means Committee for review before potentially being called to the floor of the House for Second Reading.
The enforcement funding of $1.5 million is completely inadequate for the proposed responsibilities the state will be taking over from the federal government, considering the Customs Services allocates $1,700 to capture and deport just one illegal alien.
They will quickly blow through $1.5 million just defending the proposed bill in court if it were to pass.
Additionally the change to have the State Department of Labor enforce this bills sanctions seems correct considering they already enforce the equal employment opportunity laws. Having 92 vigilante county prosecutors try to address this mess is completely stupid.
Talking about stupid, the entire bill is so riddled with problems and unintended consequences it should be killed.
I would be happy to give Senator Delph the phone number of his elected federal representatives.
Perhaps you can address this as a lawyer, but would this bill hold up to a legal challenge? Essentially, the bill reads to me like a state-level attempt to do the sort of immigration enforcement it feels the feds can’t, or won’t, do. Plus, the Chicago Tribune had an interesting article recently that a tough anti-immigration bill there (tougher than Indiana’s) had the effect only of running off a significant amount of the state’s workforce.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-immigrant_bdfeb10,0,6296102.story
This is a bill that deserves to die. Indiana shouldn’t realize too late, like Oklahoma, that the problems of immigration are far outweighed by its benefits.
I have no idea on the legal challenge. Federal immigration law is above my pay grade.