Immigration debate spurs state bills

By DAVID RYFE, The Tennessean
May 1, 2006

These days when state Sen. Joe Haynes sits down at the "liars' table," a local hangout for political gossip in his district, all people seem to want to talk about is illegal immigration.

"People blame us for what Congress doesn't do," the Nashville Democrat said last week. "They say, 'You serve in the legislature — do something about it.' "

Tennessee legislators apparently have heeded the call. More than a dozen immigration-related bills have been introduced in the legislature this year.

They range from laws that would deny health benefits to undocumented people, to penalizing employers for hiring them, to giving state law enforcement officers the job of arresting them.

The legislative activity in Tennessee mirrors similar efforts in statehouses across the country. There are 462 immigrant-related bills pending in 43 statehouses, according to a recent survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"This is the highest activity I've seen since we've been covering" the issue, said Ann Morse, director of the NCSL Immigration Policy Project.

As in the rest of the country, many of the Tennessee bills have met with stiff criticism.

One of the more controversial proposals would have the state Department of Safety negotiate with the federal government to enroll Tennessee Highway Patrol officers in a five-week training program to learn how to enforce federal immigration and customs laws.

Alabama, Arkansas and Florida, as well as many municipalities across the U.S., have already sent officers to receive the training.

The idea is for the THP to "augment or supplement" the enforcement activities of the federal government, according to Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville.

Immigrant-rights groups have been highly critical of the bill.

"It's a particularly bad (bill)," said Rick Casares, spokesman for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

Tennessee should be trying to get illegal immigrants "out of the shadows and involved in the system," and this bill would do the exact opposite, Casares argues.

The proposal has had a rocky road in the legislature. A bill sponsored by Norris would have required the Department of Safety to participate in the federal program, but it has been deferred in a House subcommittee until September — effectively sidelining the bill.

A similar bill sponsored by Rep. Gary Moore, D-Joelton, and Haynes is still on track, but it contains a crucial difference from Norris' version. It gives permission, but does not require, the Department of Safety to send troopers.

Because Safety already has the authority to do this, critics of the Moore/Haynes version complain that it wouldn't actually change anything.

Another set of controversial bills proposes to penalize employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers, either by criminalizing or fining the practice.

Not surprisingly, these bills have drawn fire from Tennessee's business community.

"You can't place the burden (of monitoring undocumented workers) on us, because we can't do it," said Deb Woolley, president of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce.

Woolley suggested that these proposals are bad public policy put forward by "legislators who (are seeking) wedge issues in an election year."

Instead of keeping illegal immigrants out of the state, legislators ought to just "document them and leave them here," said Robert Chavez, president of the Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Chavez says that members of his group simply wish to hire people who are willing and able to work.

The outlook for these bills in the legislature is unclear.

Rep. Moore has withdrawn one of them after determining that it probably violates a 1986 federal immigration law that prevents states from punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants. However, similar bills are still on the legislative calendar in both the House and the Senate.

The legislative activity has been spurred by many factors.

It responds to a widespread recognition that more undocumented workers are coming to Tennessee every year. Estimates made by the Pew Hispanic Center indicate that roughly 150,000 of the more than 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States reside in Tennessee.

Despite this influx of workers, Congress has not reformed the nation's immigration system since 1986. For instance, although the U.S. creates more than 400,000 low-skilled jobs per year, only 5,000 visas for low-skilled workers are available each year, according to Douglas Rivlin, director of communications for the National Immigration Forum, a national pro-immigrant group.

Given the high demand for low-skilled workers in Tennessee, it is not clear that any of these bills will do much to stem the tide.

In the end, said Rep. Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, "somebody in (Washington) D.C. will probably step up and do something about the problem … and no one will like it.