INDIANAPOLIS - As unemployment in Indiana has climbed past 7 percent, state lawmakers have renewed last year's failed efforts to crack down on businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
If a company is cited three times for employing illegal immigrants, it could lose its business license to operate in Indiana, under three similar bills introduced this year.
Supporters of the legislation say those penalties would keep businesses from employing illegal immigrants at below-market wages, and would dry up opportunities for illegal immigrants.
"You've got to take the economic incentive of hiring illegal immigrants off the table in order to deal with the issue," said Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, a key backer of the three strikes legislation.
The three bills would require businesses to use a federal system called E-Verify to check the legal status of potential employees. Any company that does use the free electronic system would be immune from prosecution because that counts as a good-faith effort to hire legal workers, Delph said.
The bills contain escalating penalties for hiring illegal workers, beginning with an administrative slap on the wrist for the first violation.
"It's not designed to punish law-abiding citizens or law-abiding businesses. You have to be a really bad actor and very stupid ... to be punished by this bill," Delph said. "How many times does a business need to be corrected before they get it?"
Similar legislation won approval of both chambers of the Legislature last year, but the bill died because the differences between the House and Senate versions couldn't be resolved in the waning moments of the session.
Business groups, including the state Chamber of Commerce, opposed the bill last year because of its penalty provisions on companies that are violators.
One such provision would have set forth circumstances where local police would enforce federal immigration laws. Advocates for the Hispanic community complained that could have led to racial profiling.
Delph cut out that provision this year in the interest of getting the bill passed.
But even with the change, it's not clear if illegal immigration legislation will gain political traction this year. House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, has not shown much interest in giving the bills a vote in the House.
Meanwhile, Gov. Mitch Daniels indicated he would be hesitant to back regulations that would make it tougher for businesses to hire workers.
"You won't find this on my priority list," Daniels said at a recent news conference. "But we'll see what the Legislature does."
The route a three strikes bill would take through the Legislature is unclear. Delph has authored one version, Senate Bill 580. Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, has written another. And Rep. Vern Tincher, D-Riley, introduced the third bill.
All three achieve similar objectives, and Delph said he will take a back seat to Kruse this year.
Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, is chairman of the House Public Policy Committee, which a three strikes bill might have to pass through.
"I think we always have to make sure our laws are complied with," said Van Haaften, a former Posey County prosecutor.
But he said he hasn't read the introduced legislation, and it's too early to tell if it would gain much traction in his committee.