A Massachusetts Move on Immigration Law
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: May 27, 2010

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday approved a series of measures to tighten immigration enforcement, reflecting election-year unease over the issue in a Democratic-controlled Legislature that has spurned such crackdowns in the past.
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The measures, which passed 28 to 10 in an amendment to a budget bill, would require state contractors to confirm that their workers were here legally and prohibit the contractors from doing business with the state if they were found to employ illegal immigrants.

The changes would also codify into law an existing state policy that bars illegal immigrants from qualifying for resident-tuition rates at state colleges. And they would require public housing agencies to give legal residents priority for subsidized housing.

In addition, the state attorney general’s office would be required to set up a hot line for people to anonymously report businesses that hire illegal immigrants, and to investigate any such reports.

“It’s a reaction to a political climate that has been successfully manipulated by extremist elements,â€