The State Journal

January 25, 2008 Friday

Pg. 11 Vol. 24 No. 4 ISSN: 1521-8767

Illegal Immigration Bills Debut in Legislature

Williams, Walt

ABSTRACT

A few are: * The act would make it a felony to transport and harbor illegal aliens. * It would make it a discriminatory practice for employers to hire illegal aliens to replace workers who are legal residents. * It would require regional jails to make a reasonable effort to determine the citizenship status of any person charged with a felony or driving under the influence. * It would forbid cities and counties from passing ordinances ordering their law enforcement officers from not working with federal authorities to locate and detain illegal immigrants. * It would deny illegal aliens access to college scholarships, financial aid and resident tuition.

FULL TEXT

CHARLESTON - While presidential candidates continue on the campaign trail to debate the issue of illegal immigration, a few state lawmakers say West Virginia can take action now to address the problem.

So far at least two bills have been pro-posed to curb illegal immigration, with more possibly on the way. The most ambitious bill is the West Virginia Tax-payer and Citizen Protection Act by Delegate Ricky Moye, D-Raleigh, who has proposed roughly eight pages of new laws aimed at tackling illegal immigration.

The bill would spell out that trafficking and harboring illegal aliens in West Virginia is a crime. It also creates new responsibilities for both public and private employers to ensure the people they hire are in the country legally.

Moye's bill is modeled after similar legislation recently passed in Oklahoma. The delegate said he came up with the idea to try to import Oklahoma's law to West Virginia after hearing about what it and other states were doing to cut back on illegal aliens.

That made me start thinking that we as West Virginias don't want to be the last in everything," he said. "And although we don't have a big problem with illegal immigrants ... I don't think we want to be the last state around and have a flood of illegal immigrants come here."

Oklahoma's problem with illegal immigration was so severe that it was putting stress on the state budget to provide services to all the illegal aliens, Moye said. He wants to prevent the same thing from happening here.

"We have enough budget problems without having that problem," he said. "I think it's easier for us to stop it be-fore it gets started."

The Oklahoma bill was passed in 2006 amid considerable controversy, with its opponents accusing the legislation of promoting segregation and racism. No one has spoken out against the West Virginia bill so far.

The West Virginia Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act proposes a host of legal changes to give state law enforcement authorities more power to report and detain illegal immigrants. A few are:

* The act would make it a felony to transport and harbor illegal aliens.

* It would make it a discriminatory practice for employers to hire illegal aliens to replace workers who are legal residents.

* It would require regional jails to make a reasonable effort to determine the citizenship status of any person charged with a felony or driving under the influence.

* It would forbid cities and counties from passing ordinances ordering their law enforcement officers from not working with federal authorities to locate and detain illegal immigrants.

* It would deny illegal aliens access to college scholarships, financial aid and resident tuition.

Another bill introduced by Sen.Billy Wayne Bailey, D-Wyoming, would give the West Virginia State Police the power to enforce immigration laws. Also, House Republicans have pledged to push for laws that would give private employers more tools to verify the citizenship status of potential hires.

Just how many illegal immigrants are currently in the state is impossible to say. Ohio County Sheriff Tom Burgoyne said his officers have detained 109 illegal immigrants since May 2005.

"They were just being picked up because they were speeding or their taillight was out," he said. "You may have 14 of them in a van."

Burgoyne said most of the illegal aliens were just passing through the state on their way somewhere else. Still, many end up in West Virginia. where they get jobs on farms or in construction, taking jobs away from people who are here legally, he said.

Burgoyne frequently has spoken out about cracking down on illegal immigration. He once threatened to charge the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement for holding illegal immigrants in the regional jail unless its agents came and picked them up. The sheriff said he now has a great relation-ship with the agency, although he laments that more isn't being done on the federal side.

"It's a shame that all these little towns, counties and states have to pass these laws concerning immigration when it should be the federal government passing the laws," he said.

March 3, 2008
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