Thread: MT: Bill on Illegal Immigrants Advances to Full House

Bill on Illegal Immigrants Advances to Full House

By Matt Gouras
Associated Press
Jan. 14 2011
HELENA, MT

A legislative plan to ban illegal immigrants from receiving workers' compensation insurance benefits cleared its first committee hurdle and now goes to the full state House.

Backers of the proposal say it is needed to send a strong message to those wrongly employing illegal immigrants.

Opponents argue the workers will still get injured, and hospitals will have to pick up the tab for treating them in emergencies.

Montana State Fund says that in 2010, it so far only find eight claims out of more than 8,000 that had suspicious Social Security numbers that may indicate an illegal immigrant.

Another bill debated on Friday bans illegal immigrants from getting state drivers' licenses.

http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/ ... use/21417/

Originally Posted by American-ized

Bill on Illegal Immigrants Advances to Full House

By Matt Gouras
Associated Press
Jan. 14 2011
HELENA, MT

A legislative plan to ban illegal immigrants from receiving workers' compensation insurance benefits cleared its first committee hurdle and now goes to the full state House.

Backers of the proposal say it is needed to send a strong message to those wrongly employing illegal immigrants.

Opponents argue the workers will still get injured, and hospitals will have to pick up the tab for treating them in emergencies.

Montana State Fund says that in 2010, it so far only find eight claims out of more than 8,000 that had suspicious Social Security numbers that may indicate an illegal immigrant.

Another bill debated on Friday bans illegal immigrants from getting state drivers' licenses.

http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/ ... use/21417/

(

way to go )

No amnesty

How about if we just get the illegals out of the country!

This country is being led astray.

How many countries actually go to war wearing gloves and playing by rules?

How many countries declare war on drugs and do nothing to secure a porous border which everyone knows drugs are being carried (yes I said ,carried) across that border.

Declare war on human smuggling and do nothing to stop it at our (again) borders

Seems we need to be taking those gloves off and actually enforcing our laws on immigration and deportation and employers who hire these illegals (as the laws say to do) .Oh that's right the HISPANIC GROUPS say it is not good to enforce laws against them.

Yeah,you got it,we fight these same wars while observing our enemies rules.

Looks as though our enemies also live in Washington and in some state governments.

Legislature moves to ban illegal immigrants from work comp
Posted: Friday, January 14, 2011 11:22 am | (40) Comments

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana lawmakers tackled illegal immigration Friday, pushing forward a bill to ban illegal immigrants from receiving workers' compensation insurance benefits and hearing initial debate on a plan to turn to a federal immigration database before issuing Montana driver's licenses.

Staunch opponents to illegal immigration want the state to use that federal database to verify legal immigration status before issuing a driver's license.

Opponents of House Bill 178 argue the state would be subjecting its residents — and control of its identification — to a database that was central to the federal REAL ID program Montana overwhelmingly rejected.

Rep. David Howard, a Park City Republican and retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, said his proposed bill is an extra safeguard that is needed to make sure only people in the country legally get a driver's license.

Other supporters said illegal immigrants affect national security and other issues.

"They are slowly infiltrating the state of Montana," said Art Ellison, who testified with other members of the American Legion in support of the bill. "All of the Western states are inundated with the illegal immigrants."

The Department of Transportation said it favors the bill. Right now its agents have to individually analyze complicated immigration documents to determine legality. Those agents could now rely on the "federal systematic alien verification for entitlements program."

Opponents said it is wrong to specify the use of the federal database in state law. They said it could be inaccurate, pointing to past problems in federal agencies, and lead to lengthy delays for Montanans legally requesting a driver's license.

The argued that no illegal immigrant who has to cross dangerous borders and risk everything to get into the country is going to be stopped by the threat of not being able to get a driver's license. The roads will be more dangerous because such immigrants won't have licenses or insurance under the plan.

The House Transportation Committee didn't take an immediate vote on the plan.

A different panel, the House Judiciary Committee, endorsed a measure to ban illegal immigrants from collecting workers' compensation benefits.

Backers of the proposal said it is needed to send a message to those wrongly employing illegal immigrants. Opponents countered that the workers will still get injured, and hospitals will be left picking up the tab for treating them in emergencies.

The politically charged arguments surround a perceived problem that could be very small — or even nonexistent.

The Montana State Fund reported to legislative staff that in 2010, it could only find eight claims out of more than 8,000 that had a suspicious Social Security number that may indicate an illegal immigrant.

Jorge Quintana, a Helena lawyer who said he is of Cuban ancestry and speaks Spanish, said he practiced for years as a prosecutor and only once ever came across an illegal immigrant needing a translator in the justice system.

"This is an out-of-state solution to a problem we simply don't have," Quintana said.



http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-a ... 002e0.html