Tennesse Immigration Reform Bill
SB0576 / HB1216
This local Tennessee Bill seeks to put pressure on private employers, "officers of the peace" and State Government "will be asked" to enforce FEDERAL immigration law! Again, because the Federal immigration system is dysfunctional and broken, States are venting frustration by trying to pass costly Bills such as this one across the United States. This Bill is modeled after the Georgia
Immigration Law:
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Mandates that the Governor enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the US Immigration and Customs enforcement agency (ICE) and designate state "peace officers" as immigration enforcement agents.
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Mandates that state and local jailors check immigration status of certain arrestees, with no provisions for training.
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Requires public employers and contractors use the Basic Pilot program to verify work authorization of employees. According to the Social Security Adminstration, the Basic Pilot program includes 17.8 million records with substantive data errors. Current immigration reform proposals at the federal level (such as the STRIVE Act of 2007), would eliminate the Basic Pilot program altogether in favor of a workable Employee Eligibility Verification System .
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Imposes tax penalties on any employer or small business that fails to use the Basic Pilot program or otherwise verify immigration status. Although the House sponsor has suggested this bill would only affect state employers, it provides signficant tax penalties for any small business that does not have the training or capacity to implement this immigration screening.
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Requires state and local employees to check immigration status for government services, while not affecting eligibility for these programs. Undocumented immigrants are barred from most entitlement programs, except for those mandated by federal law.
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Administrative obstacles to government services promise to impact all Tennesseans with higher costs, decreased efficiency, and the accidental denial of services to qualified applicants.
“Colorado's new law banning state spending on illegal immigrants has cost more than $2 million to enforce?and has saved the state nothing”. **Quoted from State Budget Report in the Denver Post
The projected cost of this TN bill is $1,870,900 a year.