Thread: Wyo. House committee shoots down immigration bill

Wyo. House committee shoots down immigration bill

By BEN NEARY - Jan 24, 2011 1:41 PM PT
By The Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming House committee on Monday rejected a bill that would have cracked down on illegal immigrants and people who employ them in the state.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Pete Illoway, R-Cheyenne, died Monday after no member of the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee moved to vote on it. Several witnesses testified that it would duplicate existing federal law and raise constitutional concerns about police treatment of people suspected of being in the country illegally.

Illoway said after the vote he's hopeful that his bill, HB 94, helped to focus attention on the immigration issue and that the Legislature will address it in the future.

"What I heard today was finally, is there is a problem here in Wyoming, and it needs to be addressed," Illoway said. "No, this bill is probably not where we wanted to go. But it's a first step because people finally say, 'Oh, there is a problem. Let's go ahead and work on this thing.'"

Introducing his bill to the committee, Illoway said he had modeled it after a state immigration law enacted in Arizona that has prompted wide-ranging legal challenges.

Illoway's bill would have authorized police to arrest people without a warrant if they committed offenses that made them eligible for deportation. The state needed to act because the federal government hasn't done enough to address illegal immigration, he said.

"This is not anti-immigration; it's not anti-Hispanic," Illoway said. "It could be called a legal versus illegal bill."

Several representatives from business and industry groups spoke against the bill. Many said their members already follow federal immigration requirements in hiring employees and don't need a duplicative state system.

"We're already subject to a number of these requirements under federal law," said Jonathan Downing, spokesman for the Wyoming Contractors Association.

Lynn Birleffi, lobbyist for the Wyoming Lodging & Restaurant Association, said many association members employ workers from other countries. They're currently working to comply with federal requirements, she said.

"Part of our concern is you'll have two systems going along," Birleffi said.

Joel Anderson, a Denver lawyer who practices immigration law, also testified against the bill.

It's clear that challenges to the Arizona law are headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, he said. Anderson questioned whether it's in Wyoming's interest to commit to spending the legal fees to defend a similar law.

Linda Burt, head of the ACLU in Wyoming, also spoke against the bill. The ACLU has been involved in securing federal court injunctions barring Arizona from enforcing aspects of its law, she said.

"I would just urge you to oppose this bill," Burt said. "Obviously there are reforms that need to be made, but they're not going to be made at this level."

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That's a real shame, Wyoming. You need a bill, every state does, and it's time when these business types show up to fight against a law on the state level that they claim they're complying with on the federal level, to document their compliance. They need to submit a list of every single one of their employees and give the state legislatures the freedom to VERIFY their "compliance."

Immigration law is no different than any other law that's administered on two levels. US labor law is administered on two levels, federal and state. US civil rights law is administered on two levels, federal and state. Now tell me how in the world you can agree to dual level labor and civil rights laws and refuse to agree to dual level immigration law that directly impacts labor and civil rights laws?

How about it ACLU? How can you defend labor and civil rights laws for the people protected by them in the US when you're defending handing off their jobs to illegal aliens?

How could any member of that committee not have the intelligence to see through this charade of false testimony from the ACLU and your business groups?

Pathetic.