Brown County Pursues Authority to Fight Illegal Immigration

June 21, 2007 02:17 PM EDT

The Brown County Board is asking Washington to help fight illegal immigration. The board approved a resolution at Wednesday night's meeting.

The resolution asks the federal government to provide funding to secure borders, personnel to enforce immigration laws, and authority for local law enforcers to participate in enforcing those laws.

The Brown County Board also drafted an ordinance that would let it take away county licenses from businesses that hire illegal immigrants, even though the law doesn't give the county the authority to enforce immigration laws.

County Supervisor Joe Van Deurzen asked, "Does anybody have any idea what it's going to cost us, and how many people it's going to take, and how it's going to be done, and who's going to do it?"

"These businesses will have a second thought about hiring illegal immigrants if we put it on the table, let them know that we're out here looking at it, so that isn't going to cost money. It'll make them think twice, so it is important to get it going," Supervisor Thomas DeWane said.

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