Indiana’s House Judiciary Committee voted 9-4 to advance a bill that allows the state’s governor to withhold funding from local bodies failing to comply with federal immigration measures.
House Bill 1531 provides that “if the attorney general determines a governmental body did not comply with an immigration detention order, upon the advice of the attorney general, the governor may order that state funding and grants be withheld to the governmental body.”
The bill further asserts that an employer must not hire an illegal immigrant. The bill also “[m]akes it a Level 6 felony if a parole sponsor knowingly or intentionally submits a false statement or false supporting documentation to the state department of revenue” and “[r]equires each school corporation and charter school to report to the department of education certain student information.”
Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Blake Lanning told the IndyStar: “We’ve been doing as much as we can with existing authority under labor trafficking laws to go after this issue of illegal aliens being employed in the state. But in many ways, Indiana law was not designed for this problem, to address this problem.”
“From our perspective right now, because the state is not collecting data on the number of migrants coming into the state, and you know what immigration classification they fall into, we really are left relying heavily on anecdotal evidence about how this is affecting people,” he said.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Chris Bailey previously said that local law enforcement “does not have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws.” He noted the department did not have “any intention of doing so.”
Tennessee recently passed a similar bill supporting federal deportation efforts. The legislation allows the governor to appoint a Chief Immigration Enforcement Officer to work with the Trump administration in implementing immigration policies. A $5 million grant fund will also be established to train law enforcement officers.
Additionally, a Class E felony offense will be created to target local officials who maintain or vote for sanctuary city policies in violation of state law. The legislation also calls for differentiation in state-issued IDs for those who are U.S. citizens and those who are not.
