INDIANAPOLIS - State lawmakers Thursday gave up hope of rushing a bill through the General Assembly this year aimed at cracking down on business that employ undocumented immigrants.
Instead, they'll study the issue of illegal immigration over the summer and try again next year.
As all heads in the Legislature turned in the waning hours of the 2008 legislative session to a bill to reduce property taxes, a committee tasked with finding a compromise version of immigration bills passed by the House and Senate was unable to do so Thursday night.
The chairman of that committee, Sen. Tom Weatherwax, R-Logansport, said the conference committee should create a summer committee to study the issue and present its findings so the Legislature can act on them next year's longer, budget-writing session.
That was the best lawmakers can do this year as House Democrats and Senate Republicans appeared unwilling to budge on the bill and also unwilling to divert attention away from a property tax deal.
Until the session officially ends at midnight tonight, an immigration bill is not dead.
Weatherwax now needs to secure the signatures of the committee's three other members - one from each party in both the House and Senate - to send the committee report to the full House and Senate. Both chambers have to vote to pass that report in order to create the study committee.
But Sen. Mike Delph, R - Carmel, the chief architect of the bill, remained hopeful late Thursday it could be revived today. Delph was attempting to craft a compromise version of the bill that could be approved before the deadline to adjourn.
Penalties sought
At the heart of an immigration bill this year would have been a three-strikes provision that meant increasing penalties each time a business was caught employing undocumented immigrants. After the third violation, the business could have been shut down.
The House, which Democrats control by a narrow 51-49 majority, passed what some of the bill's supporters in the Senate, where Republicans are in control, called a watered-down version. One key difference between the House and the Senate versions was the time span for the three-strikes violations. The House version set that at five years, but the Senate set it at 10 years.
Also, the House version shifted the enforcement burden from local prosecutors who would try businesses in courtrooms to administrative law judges, under the Indiana Department of Labor.
The Senate would have required the Indiana State Police to negotiate with federal authorities for training on enforcing federal immigration laws, but the House recommended only the agency's doing so.
Two compromise versions of the bill were introduced, but neither gained any traction Thursday evening.
Opponents of the bill included business leaders and advocates for the Hispanic community.
Federal action
They argued that illegal immigration is an issue that demands action from the federal government, not the state. They've called the bill unconstitutional.
The bill's supporters have said illegal immigration demands action because it places an unnecessary burden on the state's health care and education systems. They've said that while it's best for the federal government to act on the issue, its failure to do so means Indiana needs to pass its own bill.
According to 2006 Pew Hispanic Center estimates, up to 85,000 undocumented immigrants live in Indiana.