Revamped illegal immigration bill focuses on businesses
11:12 PM, Apr. 14, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana is putting its own stamp on efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.

The House Public Policy Committee on Thursday reshaped Senate Bill 590 and will vote on it this morning. It's now stripped of its Arizona-style provisions that, like a bill passed a year ago in that western state, would have required local and state law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws.

Instead, it now focuses more on employers, to remove the incentive for people to come here illegally, plus steps to keep illegal immigrants already behind bars from getting out. Among those pushing for the changes: Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Rep. Eric Koch, the Bedford Republican who sponsored SB 590 in the House, said this is immigration enforcement Indiana-style.

"I think it made it more of an Indiana solution, and in some ways it even strengthened provisions," Koch said. "What we're trying to do is find a solution that's right for Indiana, and it sounds like we're close."

The bill the House committee is expected to pass this morning isn't the bill Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, wanted. Thursday, he wouldn't say whether he would go along with the changes made in the House, or push the Senate to negotiate with the House to restore some of the law enforcement provisions removed by the House.

Despite the changes, he said, "There are a lot of good things remaining in the bill."

Delph has been trying for four years to pass a bill that cracks down on illegal immigration, and his introduced version mirrored the Arizona law. Delph's bill passed the Senate earlier this session 31-18. But opposition stiffened after that vote, and this week Daniels publicly spoke out against it, saying he instead backed the changes that would focus more on employment.

"The idea I like is to deny (employers) the tax deduction if they're caught doing it," Daniels told The Indianapolis Star on Tuesday. "It's a fairly clean way to get at it, and really employment is the magnet that leads to the illegality."

That now is the chief focus of the bill.

Delph had wanted a "three strikes and you're out" provision that would strip licenses from businesses caught three times hiring illegal immigrants.
The Senate changed that to tax penalties. Under the bill the House committee will vote on this morning, businesses caught knowingly hiring illegal immigrants would face the loss of various tax credits. They could not take any tax deductions for the wages paid those employees, and would have to pay back unemployment benefits that might have been paid to someone who should not have been hired.

In addition, the bill would bar companies who violate the law from getting or keeping government contracts. And no company could get a grant of more than $1,000 unless it participated in the federal E-Verify program to check the identities of their hires.

Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, called the changes a big improvement, though the group still maintains immigration is an issue that the federal government, and not individual states, needs to confront.

But, he said of the bill as it now stands, "If that's what the General Assembly wants to do and they feel they have to have an immigration bill this year, we can live with that."

Besides, he said, "We'd prefer they pass the bill in that form than start all over again next year."

Gone from the bill is the most controversial provision, which would have required police to check the immigration status of anyone stopped for other violations if they had reason to believe the person was not here legally.

But the bill would require the Department of Correction to evaluate all adult offenders' immigration status, and police would be able to arrest anyone subject to a removal order by an immigration court or an order to be detained by the Department of Homeland Security.

It also would: require the state to calculate the costs of illegal immigration and submit a bill to Congress; prevent any defendant who is a foreign national from being released unless they post cash, real estate or surety bond equal to the amount of the bail; and make it a misdemeanor to knowingly transport or conceal any illegal immigrant for commercial or financial gain. The latter would be increased to a felony if the violation involved more than nine illegal immigrants.

Thursday, both businesses and several Hispanic-Americans said they still fear the bill will still give the perception that Indiana is a not a welcoming place.

Tony Barreda, Whiting, told the lawmakers the bill may be "politically correct" but is also "morally wrong."

He is a fourth generation American, he said, whose first language was Spanish. He feared that others like him would be singled out as somehow less American.

But supporters, including Theresa Musgrave of Zionsville who said she emigrated from England in 1992 and spent more than $18,000 to be classified as a permanent resident, said the nation's doors should be open only to those who follow the laws and enter legally.

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