Thread: Time running out for debate on Indiana immigration billâ€

Updated: March 10, 2008 06:40 PM CDT

Kevin Rader/Eyewitness News

Indiana Statehouse - Most years, illegal immigration would be a hot button issue. This year, however, it took a back seat to property taxes.
With four days left in the 115th General Assembly, lawmakers have a host of issues that remain to be dealt with, but one issue commands more attention than all the others combined.

"I think it's the focus on property taxes and the focus should be on property tax reform," said State Senator Mike Delph (R-Carmel).

Any other year, the Delph-Tincher bill dealing with illegal immigration might very well be the biggest issue on the table. It has prompted emotional debate in both the House and the Senate. But the fact remains, as of Monday no conferees have even been appointed on the bill to iron out differences between the two bodies. The idea is actually to crack down on the businesses which employ illegal immigrants.

Monday, Senator Delph and Representative Vern Tincher held a news conference in an effort to keep a spotlight on the bill.
"You could certainly do that," Sen. Delph said when asked what would be wrong with waiting to work on the bill next year. "You could certainly study the issues to death. My question is, 'Why?' My personal belief is the people who want to kill this bill are the people who want to profit from this illegal activity. They are standing by when their fellow human beings are being exploited for cheap labor and I just don't think that is right."

According to a new study issued by the University of Notre Dame, the legislation will affect 153,000 immigrants - 2.6% of the state's population - if it's passed. It also cites the loss of 87,000 workers or 2.2% of the overall labor force. Five billion dollars in gross domestic product, a $2.3 billion decrease in personal income and a $200 million shortfall in state taxes.
"We have until Friday to get a conference committee report signed and I am still confident we have time to do that," Delph said.

The House will only meet in committees until Thursday, so time is running out.


Video included at link.
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=7994935

Moved from General Discussion to News since there is a news source link.

Many state legislative sessions are coming to recess/ajournment this month.

Dixie

Supporters hope illegal immigration legislation will get hearing
By DEANNA MARTIN | Monday, March 10, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS - Supporters of a bill to crack down on companies hiring illegal immigrants are hoping a last-minute push could get the proposal over procedural hurdles before the legislative session ends Friday.

The proposal has not yet had a hearing in a House-Senate conference committee, where final versions of bills are negotiated.

Opponents are lobbying hard against the legislation, but there's still time to reach a compromise, said Sen. Mike Delph, a Republican from Carmel who sponsored the proposal. The bill would punish companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants after 2009.

Delph said legislative leaders are focused on property taxes now but he hopes the bill will get a hearing before the session ends Friday.

"Property tax reform is the number one priority of both the Senate and the House, and that's dominating most of the attention of the leadership," Delph said.

House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, has not yet appointed House representatives to sit on the conference committee, but said he would probably do so later. He said he hoped the Senate would simply agree to House changes on the proposal rather than working on a new compromise.

But Senate President Pro Tem David Long said there are differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill that need to be hammered out in a conference committee.

"We're trying to get this right," said Long, a Republican from Fort Wayne.

The House and Senate versions of the bill would both create a three-tier punishment system for companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants after 2009. After three incidents, companies could have their business licenses suspended or revoked. The House version, however, includes money for enforcement and changes the way the bill would be enforced.

Delph and the House sponsor of the bill, Democrat Vern Tincher of Riley, held a news conference Monday touting a proposed compromise that includes parts of the House and Senate versions. But it's unclear whether the agreement between the two lawmakers would be approved by those on the conference committee or other legislators.

Delph and Tincher urged the public to call their representatives and tell them to support the proposal.

"A majority of Hoosiers want the Indiana General Assembly to do something on illegal immigration today," Delph said.

Several business organizations oppose the bill, saying Indiana's economy could suffer if the proposal passes. That would hurt both illegal workers and American citizens, opponents say.

About 55,000 to 85,000 unauthorized immigrants live in Indiana, according to 2006 estimates from the PEW Hispanic Center.

http://www.nwi.com/articles/2008/03/10/ ... aqc8g0.txt

added to the homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article3027.html

Immigration bill on the clock
Lawmakers, ministers make final pushas midnight Friday deadline looms
By Bryan Corbin
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS — Borrowing a tactic from their opponents, the supporters of a three-strikes immigration bill gathered lawmakers and a Los Angeles minister onto the same stage to make the case for letting the bill get a final vote.

Whether the three-strikes legislation, now contained in Senate Bill 345, advances any further won't be decided until Thursday at the earliest. Midnight Friday is the deadline to pass bills and adjourn for the year.

State Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, and state Rep. Vern Tincher, D-Terre Haute, renewed their call Tuesday for final action on the hybrid version of their bill, which, among other things, says companies caught employing illegal immigrants three times in seven years could lose their Indiana business licenses. It also would seek to have the State Police trained to enforce federal immigration laws.

Different versions of the bill have passed by wide margins in the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate, but that's not the end of the process.

A four-member conference committee — one Republican and Democrat each from the House and Senate — then must hammer out a compromise between the two versions. All four conferees must sign off on it before the compromise can go to the full House and Senate for a final vote.

Democratic House Speaker Patrick Bauer adjourned that chamber Monday without appointing House conferees. The House won't be in session until Thursday, leaving little time for the conferees to be named, meet and reach accord on the bill.

If it doesn't pass by Friday, the bill is dead for the year.

Tincher said he was confident that House leaders would let the conference committee proceed.

But Delph said it "will send a loud message" if outspoken opponents of the three-strikes bill were appointed to that committee and then ran out the clock on the bill this session. None have been named yet.

One of those opponents, however, contended that lawmakers have learned of "serious constitutional problems" in the bill and are reluctant to rush it to a vote.

"As the constitutional problems become more glaring, people are taking a step back," Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Indianapolis, said. "Everyone is for enforcing the federal immigration laws, but it has to be within the Constitution."

Murphy was the lone House Republican who attended a news conference last week organized by several ministers opposing the three-strikes bill, along with five House Democrats. Opponents urged that it be reassigned to a summer study commission.

A group supporting the bill, the Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, or IFIRE, countered Tuesday by organizing their own public event in the same Statehouse room opponents used last week. Highlighting their effort was a minister from South Central Los Angeles, the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, president of Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny or BOND.

Responding to the ministers who spoke out against the bill last week, Peterson added, "Yes, God wants us to love our neighbors, but he also wants our neighbors to obey the law."

Business groups and activists for the Hispanic community have opposed the three-strikes bill, saying it could lead to businesses being penalized and racial profiling. Border security advocates have complained that the bill does not go far enough to punish undocumented aliens for entering the U.S. illegally.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/m ... the-clock/

indystar.com
3:08 PM March 11, 2008
Pastor adds race to immigration debate
By Dan McFeely

A conservative black pastor from Los Angeles warned of racial conflicts, primarily between Hispanics and blacks, if Hoosier lawmakers don't pass an illegal immigration bill this week.

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson -- who was flown in from California by supporters of the illegal immigration bill that is barely alive at the Statehouse -- said because his state has not done anything to stem the tide of illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles area, blacks have felt pushed to the side and have lost jobs.
Indiana could face the same, he warned in a Statehouse press conference this morning.

The comments come after weeks of attempts by the bill's author to keep race out of the debate.

Peterson, the founder of the Brotherhood of Organization of a New Destiny, said he has ministered to young black men for the past 18 years. He said overcrowded schools have led to more black dropouts and that it is typical for black "day laborers" to be denied jobs because they don't speak Spanish.

Peterson, a constant critic of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, is the author of "Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America." He has been criticized by other national black leaders for taking an extreme view on various matters.

This morning's press conference was organized by IFIRE, the Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, which has been pushing a law to fight illegal immigration.

After the press conference Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, the bill's author, distanced himself from the discussion about race.

"I can't control what other people say," said Delph, who noted he did not organize the press conference. "Everybody has their right to speak and share their views.

"This gentleman is entitled to his view. Obviously he lives in a different world out in Los Angeles than the world we live in here in Indiana."

The immigration bill is currently in limbo, waiting for the House of Representatives to appoint conferees for a conference committee -- without which the legislation cannot advance.

Delph on Monday unveiled compromise language that he would like to insert into the bill. This morning, he said he remained optimistic.

"Right now the Speaker of the House has the ball," Delph said, referring to B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, who adjourned the House yesterday without naming conferees.

The House won't reconvene until Thursday, at which time there will be just two days remaining in the session.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... e=printart