Thread: Illegal immigration bills may return in next year's session

Illegal immigration bills may return in next year's session
Sponsor wants to meet with opponents
Saturday, June 21, 2008
By Ed Anderson

BATON ROUGE -- The sponsor of legislation designed to crack down on illegal immigrants and those who help them said Friday his package of bills is dead for this session but he may bring them back next year after meeting with all sides on the hot-button issue.

Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, said that he will meet with "an informal panel" of proponents and opponents before the next regular session in April to improve the package.

The session is designed mainly for fiscal matters but each lawmaker can file up to five non-fiscal bills.

"I think it can be worked out and at least soften the opposition of the opponents," Geymann said.

Geymann's three-bill package included:

House Bill 1358 to prohibit the transportation of illegal immigrants if the person knows the individuals are in the country illegally. The bill called for a maximum $1,000 fine, a prison term of up to six months or both for a first violation. Subsequent violations would result in a top fine of $2,000, up to a year in jail or both.

-- House Bill 1357 to create the crime of knowingly harboring or sheltering an illegal immigrant from prosecution, arrest or detention. It had the same penalties as the other bill.

-- House Bill 25 to require police to verify the "citizenship of immigration status" of an arrested suspect.

Geymann's bills were on a fast track in the House but bogged down in the Senate Judiciary B Committee on June 3 when panel Chairman Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, questioned how police could enforce the law and district attorneys prosecute offenders.

Martiny and other panel members complained that the proposals could lead to ethnic profiling.

At that point, Geymann asked Martiny to give him time to resolve the problems and possibly return to the next meeting with a lawyer to explain how the bills would work.

Martiny offered to call another meeting but said publicly he was "not for the bills."

"I don't want to do anything that would cause profiling," Geymann said. "There were a lot of questions about enforcement . . . and the process" police would use. "It is a legitimate question that we need to address."

He said he will meet with members of the immigrant community, non-profit organizations, the Catholic Church, agencies with immigrants and the major opponents of the package.

. . . . . . .

Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or (225) 342-5810.
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Oh brother. He'll meet with the opposition. Give me a break. He needs to talk to ICE and the 287(g) program that fulfills the needs and doesn't allow profiling. What baloney. I wonder if Geymann knows what he is doing.