Thursday, December 20, 2007

Michigan Republicans Make Immigration Reform Top Concern


LANSING - When Republicans controlled the House in the 93rd Legislature, Democrats were always fighting for attention on out-of-state trash and drug immunity. In the 94th Legislature, where the power table has turned on, Republicans have chosen immigration issues as their drum to beat steadily.

But much like amendments to bills dealing with trash and drug immunity fell by the wayside with Republicans in power; Democrats have halted attempts by Republicans in the minority to get attention to their immigration bills.

There has been a lack of cohesion when it comes to state policy on immigration as states have taken to "rolling out welcome mats while others are slamming shut their doors," because of a lack of federal policy initiatives, Stateline reported this week.

House Minority Leader Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) said Republicans have been pursuing immigration issues since the budget bills rolled out this spring but are becoming more of a focus now as the Legislature deals with other issues. DeRoche said limiting state services to citizens only is an important budget reform both in the short and long term.

Limiting benefits reins in entitlement spending, he said. But asked why he didn't move on these immigration measures while in the majority, DeRoche said the chamber did, but the Senate blocked them. He now feels changes to Senate ranks makes immigration efforts palatable.

DeRoche also said Democrats who supported the legislation back then would do the same if given a chance, but leadership has blocked those votes. DeRoche said while House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) said he would conduct the chamber in an open fashion, the block on these immigration measures is contrary to that statement.

The main tie-bars Republicans have been seeking are to HB 5211 , HB 4505 and HB 4406 . Those bills make English the official state language, require a person's citizenship to be displayed on their driver's license and prohibit local governments from passing measures restricting their cooperation with the federal government on finding illegal aliens.

Members of the Republican Caucus have also introduced legislation prohibiting employers from firing a citizen to hire an illegal alien (HB 5516 ), requiring a state report on federal reimbursements made for the state covering costs for illegal immigrants (HB 5062 ), banning state government contracts for firms with illegal aliens (HB 4397 ), providing a different class of state identification cards and driver's licenses for people on a visa (HB 4957 and HB 4881 ), requiring businesses with state contracts to electronically verify their employee's legal status (HB 5570 ) and banning the use of municipal identification cards for illegal aliens (HB 5510 ).

But House Majority Floor Leader Steve Tobocman (D-Detroit) defends the holdup on immigration votes, arguing Republicans change their amendments every day and there isn't a cohesive message from their end on immigration, whereas Democrats were always clear what they wanted when it came to trash and drug immunity measures.

Tobocman acknowledged that some Democratic members want to look at these issues, but not right now, particularly on driver's licenses because states still don't have REAL ID standards.

Republicans have introduced HB 5518 , HB 5519 and HB 5537 , which deal with license standards for REAL ID and HR 25 , which calls on Congress to give states enough money to cover the program.

Democrats have also presented their own bills on dealing with undocumented workers, Tobocman noted.

Democrats have proposed a Hire Michigan Workers First plan, which would create a sliding scale for businesses seeking tax abatements or other economic development tools with the state based on how many Michigan workers they employ.

Also, Democrats are introducing legislation that creates harsher criminal and civil penalties for the business "bad actors" that continue to hire illegal immigrants

http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=8054