HB928: Illegal immigration; adopts several measures aimed at curbing in State, report.

Chief Patron

Todd Gilbert (R-15)
Woodstock, VA
Served: 2006–

Progress

	Introduced
	Passed Committee
	Passed House
	Passed Senate
	Signed by Governor
	Became Law

Status

02/12/2008: Failed to Pass in Committee

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Summary

Illegal immigration; penalty. Adopts several measures aimed at curbing illegal immigration in the Commonwealth. The bill requires all public bodies and their contractors to register and participate in a federal work authorization program operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security to verify information on all new employees, and requires all agencies providing benefits to verify the recipient's immigration status. State institutions of higher education would be prohibited from providing in-state tuition to illegal aliens.

The bill requires that if an independent contractor fails to provide documentation of the contractor's employment authorization, the contracting entity must withhold state income tax at the top marginal income tax rate from any compensation paid to the contractor.

The bill makes it a Class 6 felony to harbor, transport, or conceal an illegal alien. In addition, the immigration status of any individual arrested on suspicion of a felony or of driving under the influence must be verified.

To aid in the enforcement of immigration laws, the Attorney General is authorized to negotiate the terms of a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Homeland Security that would allow law-enforcement officers in the Commonwealth to perform certain immigration functions. In addition, the Department of State Police is directed to establish a division of fraudulent document identification to investigate the sale and distribution of fraudulent documents in the Commonwealth.

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Video

Votes were cast on this bill on the following dates for which Richmond Sunlight has video: 01/09/2008, 01/09/2008 and 02/12/2008.

Comments

Claire Gastanaga writes:

This bill is exactly the kind of bill that the single object rule of the Constitution of Virginia is meant to preclude. It packages together many different proposals covering law enforcement, education, provision of services,criminal sanctions for harboring, public employment, withholding taxes and public contracting. This kind of log rolling in a single bill obscures issues from public awareness and discussion. The bill should be ruled out of order as both including nongermane provisions and as an unconstitutional proposal under Article IV Section 12:

Section 12. Form of laws.
No law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its title. Nor shall any law be revived or amended with reference to its title, but the act revived or the section amended shall be reenacted and published at length.

Posted 4 months ago. #

Mary Steele Yorktown VA writes:

It is a matter of National Security, we must get tough through employment and harboring laws.

This bill also takes care of the criminals that use false identities or try to hide from state to state, and country to country. When we leave criminals of all statuses no where to hide, we're all safer. When we prevent crime, it saves resources on many levels.

Posted 4 months ago. #

Kaye writes:

Just took my daughter in to DMV for her permit, shocked to see that there was a box parents of males under the age of 26 had to check for selective service. What shocked me was that I could have checked that I was an illegal, therefore not necessary to have my license sent to selective service. I thought wow...what better way to track Illegals if we really wanted to.

Posted 3 months ago. #