Thread: ALA sen. comm.approves 4 bills to discourage illegal imm

Alabama Senate committee approves four bills designed to discourage illegal immigration
Would block some benefits

Wednesday, February 25, 2009 DAVID WHITE
MONTGOMERY- A state Senate committee on Tuesday passed four bills designed to limit illegal immigration, in part by banning illegal immigrants from getting some public benefits and penalizing businesses who knowingly employ illegal immigrants on state contracts.

"We have limited resources for public assistance. Only those entitled to such, and not illegal immigrants, should be allowed to access those limited benefits," said Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, who sponsored two of the bills.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee overwhelmingly approved the four immigration bills, which could be debated by the entire Senate as soon as Thursday.

John Pickens, executive director of the nonpartisan Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice advocacy group, said federal law already controls a broad area of immigration policy. He suggested in an interview that legislators defer to federal law and not pass state laws on immigration. "They're not needed," Pickens said. "We don't think this is good policy for the state."

But the committee chairman Sen. Wendell Mitchell, D-Luverne, said: "This package of bills, to me, appears to put a reasonable restriction on illegal immigrants."

Sen. Larry Means, D-Attalla, said he thinks people should be in this country legally or be deported. "We just need to protect from having illegal immigrants," he said.

The committee approved:

Senate Bill 210 by Orr, which would require anyone 19 or older to prove legal presence in the United States before receiving public benefits such as public housing and unemployment compensation. A person could present a valid Alabama driver license or sign an affidavit stating he or she was a citizen or otherwise legally present in the country.

Proving lawful presence would not be required for many public benefits, however, such as emergency medical care, noncash emergency disaster relief, and public health immunizations and nutrition programs for infants and children.

The bill also would give county or city officials as long as 48 hours to determine the citizenship status of anyone jailed after being charged with a felony or driving under the influence or alcohol or illegal drugs.

Senate Bill 240 by Sen. Zeb Little, D-Cullman, which would ban any state agency from approving or renewing a contract unless the contractor certified in writing that it would not knowingly employ illegal immigrants to carry out the contract.

A contractor shown to have knowingly employed an illegal immigrant on a state contract despite certifying otherwise would be fined a civil penalty equal to 3 percent of the contract value.

Senate Bill 217 by Orr, which would require an employer to certify by sworn affidavit that it does not employ illegal immigrants before it could get a grant, loan or other incentive from the Alabama Development Office. An employer that violates that certification could be barred for three years from getting another ADO grant or other incentive.

Senate Bill 119 by Means, which would ban any municipality from following a policy "that serves to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation."

E-mail: dwhite@bhamnews.com


http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/s ... xml&coll=2

God Bless Alabama.

Isn't it un-believable that states have to write new laws to protect the American people from our government's illegals lack of enforcement and then go to the government for approval?

Wow and these are DEMOCRATS....good to hear this...illegal immigration hurts all AMERICANS regardless of party, color, creed, race, etc. The more Americans lose their jobs, lose their benefits, lose their homes...the less support there will be for any laws designed to allow illegal aliens to keep their jobs and obtain benefits.