National, State Leaders Ask Indiana Senate To Stop Blocking Vote On Immigration Enforcement Bill
Thirteen organizations wrote to Indiana’s Senate leader Friday, asking him to ensure his chamber votes on a key bill to help enforce U.S. immigration law after four years of open borders. House Bill 1531 passed the state House with the support of all Republicans except one, but is being held up in the state Senate by judiciary chairwoman Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne.
“Indiana communities are now experiencing the very real effects of the Biden Administration’s four years of open-border policies,” says a Friday letter to Senate Pro-Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, from the America First Policy Institute. “Emergency rooms are overcrowded and strained by the influx of illegal immigrants requiring uncompensated care. Local school districts are overwhelmed with non-English-speaking students who enter with unknown educational or health histories, diverting resources from Hoosier children. Law enforcement agencies are stretched thin as drug trafficking and gang violence spill across the border and into the Midwest. American workers, including many in construction, manufacturing, and agriculture, face unfair competition from illegal labor that drives down wages and working conditions.”
H.B. 1531 has just a few weeks to get a vote before session ends April 29. Bill supporters told The Federalist the Republican Senate caucus majority would vote yes on the bill, but Brown hasn’t allowed it a hearing and vote. Bray and the Senate have several procedural options to solve that roadblock, as The Federalist reported. Last week, Bray and Brown did not respond to comment requests from The Federalist.
H.B. 1531 would end the ability of Indiana police to create “sanctuary cities” by refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, requiring them to hold criminal alien suspects for 48 hours so federal authorities can pick them up. Indiana’s attorney general alleges Democrat South Bend Sheriff William Redman has repeatedly refused to honor immigration detainer requests, releasing violent foreign citizens back onto Indiana streets before federal authorities can pick them up.
Redman has told the press and courts he’s complying with federal immigration law, but local Democrats who protest at county council and commissioners meetings say they think he’s not and support him for it. He is term-limited and expected to next try to flip a county commissioner’s seat Democrat.
“These 48-hour holds are a standard and constitutionally upheld mechanism for federal-local cooperation,” the America First letter states. “Failure to honor them directly results in the release of criminal aliens back into communities.”
H.B. 1531 also backs up local police that cooperate with federal immigration enforcement by giving them state legal defense against multimillion-dollar legal organizations that contest every application of federal immigration law, even to terrorist suspects and rapists. It would penalize employers for employing illegally present individuals. It also would allow the attorney general to advise the Indiana governor on withholding funds from local governments that shield lawbreakers.
Several large Indiana public school systems have publicly stated they are using taxpayer resources to hide illegally present foreign citizens from law enforcement. Indianapolis Public Schools, the state’s largest district, created a website directing foreign lawbreakers to free legal assistance to fend off compliance with U.S. immigration laws. Fort Wayne’s public schools, the state’s second-largest district, promised to help lawbreakers by keeping no records of citizenship status for children to receive taxpayer-funded schooling.
“HB 1531 builds on Indiana’s anti-sanctuary law and creates new tools with which the state would be able to combat illegal immigration,” says a letter to Bray from 12 policy organizations. “When Hoosiers voted in November, they sent a clear message that they want not only a secure border but also state-level policies that will discourage illegal immigration into the state.”
The coalition letter is signed by leaders of Eagle Forum, the American Family Association of Indiana, Indiana Call to Action, Federation for American Immigration Reform, Numbers USA, the Coalition of Central Indiana Tea Parties, National Immigration Center for Enforcement, Indiana Tea Party North, Front Porch Patriots, Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, Constitutional Patriots, and Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime. The America First Policy Institute, headed by former Trump Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, sent a separate letter supporting H.B. 1531.
Members of Indiana’s national Republican congressional delegation also publicly expressed support for the state bill, issuing their own letter at the beginning of March signed by U.S. Sens. Todd Young and Jim Banks and U.S. Reps. Rudy Yakym, Marlin Stutzman, Jim Baird, Mark Messmer and Erin Houchin. Republican voters in the state that went for Trump by 17 points in 2024 placed immigration enforcement at the top of their policy priorities.
“When Hoosiers went to the polls last November, they did not vote for half-measures or vague promises,” the America First letter tells Bray. “They voted for secure borders, fair employment, safe communities, and a return to commonsense. The House has already spoken. Now, the eyes of Indiana are on the Senate. We respectfully but urgently ask you to ensure HB 1531 receives a hearing and a floor vote. Delaying action on this legislation undermines public confidence and deepens the crisis.”
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