Committee kills 2 immigration billsBY JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
Thursday, Feb 28, 2008 - 06:54:21 pm CST

The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee spoke out Thursday on the issue of illegal immigration, killing two bills and leaving a third parked in committee.

A bill (LB963) introduced at the request of Gov. Dave Heineman that would prohibit giving state, local or federal benefits to undocumented immigrants or in-state tuition to undocumented college students was killed on a 5-1 vote, with two members not voting.

Several senators said proponents of the bill, introduced by Omaha Sen. Mike Friend, failed to make their case that the law was needed, since a federal requirement already exists. If state agencies are not verifying resident status of benefit applicants, they said, they are not complying with federal law. [b]Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha said the bill was a “smoke screenâ€