Senate looks at tougher immigration law
INDIANAPOLIS— Indiana could have tougher immigration standards if a bill before the Indiana Senate becomes law.
The Senate Bill 213 would require contractors E-Verify, a software system set up to check people’s citizenship, and would increase penalties for using false identification.
The bill passed the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee, 9-0, and was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, said it will help Indiana deal with immigration without costing money. Delph has introduced similar versions of the legislation in each of the last two sessions of the General Assembly.
Sen. Tim Skinner, D- Terre Haute said he like this bill because it argues the legal side of the debate on unauthorized aliens, and not the business side.
The biggest change this bill could make is that employers will no longer have to verify that their employees are citizens but the contractors of Indiana will, said Sen. Phil Boots, R- Crawfordsville.
Contractors will now have to go through E-Verify to check their new employees’ status as an American citizen, said Boots. He said E-Verify doesn’t allow contractors to check the employees they have now, only future employees.
“(SB 213l) will help us going forward,” said Boots. “It won’t help us going backward.”
The bill likely will move to the Senate floor for second reading on Monday.
