INDIANAPOLIS - Two state lawmakers who are key backers of the three-strikes immigration bills are making another effort to get their legislation passed before the Legislature's session adjourns Friday night.
The Senate author of the original three-strikes bill, Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, and House sponsor, Rep. Vern Tincher, D-Terre Haute, unveiled a compromise version Monday they hope both parties and chambers will accept.
Of the two bills still alive that contain versions of the immigration legislation, Senate Bill 345 and House Bill 1219, Tincher said he and Delph intend to use Senate Bill 345 as the "vehicle" to get their proposal passed.
Passage is out of their hands, however. Neither Delph nor Tincher is officially a conferee - a voting member of the conference committee that will hammer out differences between the two versions of the bill. So they hope to sell the proposal to members of their parties, some of whom have openly opposed it.
Asked by reporters Monday if his bill was in trouble, Delph strenuously denied it.
But he publicly requested that Hoosiers who support his concept call their state legislators and urge them to vote for "the Delph-Tincher language" of the bill.
"It's my personal belief that people who "It's my personal belief that people who want to kill this bill are people who are profiting from this illegal activity, and they're standing by while their fellow human beings are being exploited for cheap labor," Delph said at a Statehouse news conference.
Tincher said he has gotten "no indication" House leaders would prevent the bill from proceeding to a floor-vote in the Democratic controlled House. The earlier House version passed 66-33 on Feb. 28, with 27 Democrats and 39 Republicans voting for it.
The Delph-Tincher proposal is a hybrid of the House and Senate versions:
Companies that commit a third offense of employing illegal immigrants within seven years could face the loss of their business licenses in Indiana.
Violations would be decided by an administrative law judge at the state Department of Labor. If sanctioned, a company could appeal to the governor to have the penalty reduced.
Companies that used a new federal government database to attempt to verify an employee's eligibility would be immune from such sanctions.
The Indiana State Police would be required to negotiate a training agreement with federal authorities so troopers could enforce federal immigration laws.
Communities would be forbidden from exempting themselves from the law.
People who harbor, conceal or transport illegal immigrants for profit would face criminal penalties.
Business groups and advocates for the Hispanic community oppose the bill, saying it would penalize businesses and lead to racial profiling. Border-security advocates believe the bill does not go far enough.
Several legislators - five Democrats and one Republican - attended a news conference Thursday and spoke in opposition to the three-strikes bill, preferring instead the issue be reassigned to a summer study commission.
All four members of the conference committee - one Republican and Democrat each from the House and Senate - would have to agree before the bill could return for a final vote. Absent such an agreement, the three-strikes bill would not pass this session.
Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, chaired the House panel last month that heard and passed the three-strikes bill with modifications, which he said strengthened it. "The whole process has been frustrating, the way (the bill) has been bandied about and the way it's been used for political purposes instead of policy. So there's a level of disappointment if it doesn't move, because of the work we put into it," he said.
If a final vote on the immigration bill happens, it could come Thursday or Friday as the Legislature is also considering a final vote on property-tax relief, the biggest issue of the session. Immigration "is an issue that's a heavy issue, too, so I don't know how much weight we can bear this year, if you will," Van Haaften said.