Illegal Immigration Bill Draft Summary

Bob Beers, Assembly District 21, Nevada

SECTION 1: TITLE.

• Creates the Nevada Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2009.

SECTION 2: FINDINGS.

• Legislative statement of intent that failure to enforce immigration law harms the safety and welfare of citizens and legal residents of Nevada.
• Declaration that the State has a compelling interest in insuring that government agencies and employers fully cooperate in the compliance with and enforcement of federal immigration law.

SECTION 3: FELONY TRANSPORTATION & HARBORING OF AN ILLEGAL ALIEN.

• Replicates in state law the federal statute making it a crime to move, transport, or attempt to transport persons known to be illegal aliens within Nevada.
• Replicates in state law the federal statute making it a crime to conceal, harbor, or shelter from detection in any place within the State persons known to be illegal aliens.
• Provides an exception for the transportation or harboring of illegal aliens if it’s associated with the provision of any benefit guaranteed to illegal aliens by federal law, or regulated public health services provided by a private charity with private funds.

SECTION 4: LAWFUL PRESENCE TEST FOR DRIVERS LICENSE & ID CARD

 APPLICANTS.

• Restricts eligibility for state driver’s licenses and identity cards to citizens, nationals, and legal immigrants. 
• Allows legally present nonimmigrants to be issued temporary licenses and ID cards valid only for the period for which the nonimmigrant has been admitted to the U.S.
• Provides an exception for schools IDs, as long as the school ID clearly states that the document is only valid for identification purposes at the institution where it was issued.

SECTION 5: VERIFICATION OF CITIZENSHIP OR IMMIGRATION STATUS OF

 PERSONS ARRESTED.

• Requires jail officials to attempt to verify the citizenship or immigration status of any person arrested or confined through the federal LawEnforcementSupportCenter operated by U.S. DHS.
• Requires foreign nationals who have not been lawfully admitted to the U.S. to be deemed a flight risk for bond determination purposes.

SECTION 6:  DEFINITIONS.

• Defines the terms “status verification system”, “public employer”, “subcontractor” and “unauthorized alien” for the purposes of Section 7.

SECTION 7: VERIFICATION OF WORK AUTHORIZATION BY PUBLIC EMPLOYERS,

 CONTRACTORS & SUBCONTRACTORS.

• Requires all public employers to register and participate in one of two federally implemented verification systems to verify federal employment authorization of new employees.
• Prohibits public employers from contracting for services with contractors who do not participate in a verification system to verify the status of all new employees after July 1, 2008.
• Prohibits contractors or subcontractors from entering into contracts with public employers unless they participate in a verification system to verify the status of all new employees after July 1, 2008.
• States that it’s a discriminatory practice for an employing entity to discharge a US citizen or legal resident alien while retaining an illegal alien, hired after July 1, 2008, in a comparable job as the discharged employee. In order for such a discharge to be considered a violation of this section, the employer had to know, or reasonably should have known, that the retained employee was illegal.
• Any employer using a status verification system to verify the employment eligibility of all new hires after July 1, 2008 is exempt from any liability arising from this section.
• No cause of action for violating this section can be brought against an employer, unless it arises from the provisions of this section.

SECTION 8: VERIFICATION OF LAWFUL IMMIGRATIONSTATUSFORSTATE &

 LOCAL PUBLIC BENEFITS.

• Requires all state and local agencies to verify lawful presence of applicants for state or local public benefits using the federal SAVE system.
• Provides exceptions for certain emergency and humanitarian public services designated by the U.S. Attorney General.

SECTION 9: WITHHOLDING OF INCOME TAX FOR INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS

 WITHOUT VALID SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS.

• Requires individual independent contractors to show their contracting entity documentation to verify employment authorization, or the contracting entity must withhold federal income tax at the top marginal income tax rate.
• Any contracting entity who fails to do this is liable for the taxes that should have been withheld.
• This section applies only to business relationships between individual independent contractors and contracting entities, not employees and employers.

SECTION 10: COOPERATIVE IMMIGRATION LAW ENFORCEMENT BY STATE & LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES.

• Authorizes the State Attorney General to negotiate a memo of understanding between Nevada and the Department of Justice or Homeland Security regarding enforcement of federal immigration law in Nevada.
• Prohibits any local government in this state from passing an ordinance or law restricting the ability of a law enforcement officer or government employee to communicate or cooperate with federal officials regarding the immigration status of anyone in the state.
• Prohibits any government official or entity in the state from restricting another official, entity, or public employee in the state from sending or receiving information regarding the immigration status of any individual to or from the Department of Homeland Security.
• Establishes a private right of action for any individual in this state to file for a writ of mandamus against any local or state government agency not cooperating with the provisions of this section.

SECTION 11: GENERAL PROHIBITION ON ELIGIBILITY OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

   FOR POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION BENEFITS.

• Prohibits individuals not lawfully present in the country from receiving postsecondary education benefits or resident tuition.
• Provides an exception per the provisions of Section 13.
• States that the provisions of this section do not apply to any student enrolled in a college for the 2006-2007 school year or any prior year who received resident tuition per current law.

SECTION 12: ESTABLISHING A FRAUDULENT DOCUMENTS IDENTIFICATION UNIT

   AT THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY.

• Contingent upon funding, DPS shall establish a Fraudulent Documents Identification Unit.

SECTION 13: SPECIFIC PROHIBITION ON ELIGIBILITY OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

   FOR POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION BENEFITS.

• Allows a person without legal immigration status to enroll in an institution of higher education and receive resident tuition, only if they have:

Ø      Graduated from a state high school;

Ø      Resided in the state with a parent or legal guardian while attending a state high school for at least two years before graduation;

Ø      Met the admissions requirements of the college;

Ø      Provided the college with a copy of a filed and pending application or petition for legal status; or

Ø      Provided the college with an affidavit that they will file such an application as soon as they are eligible, but in no case later than one year from the date that a process for legalization is available to them;

Ø      If such an affidavit is filed, they have to provide the college with a copy of a filed and pending application or petition for legal status no later than one year from the date that a process for legalization became available to them.

• No student shall have to meet additional conditions for resident tuition who qualified for resident tuition per the provisions of a previous version of this law during the 2006-2007 school year or any prior year.

SECTION 14: EFFECTIVE DATE.

• Effective date – October 1, 2009.

I have an addition for the Wikipedia page. A political football is also a topic that generates more hypocrisy than any other form of discussion. During my first few months in the world of politics I discovered that particular sport was not specific to any one of the political parties.

My first example is Illegal Immigration. On the Democrat side the football becomes one of so called “human rights” where the people breaking the U.S. immigration laws somehow have been granted rights above and beyond those of natural and naturalized citizens. On the Republican side, those violating our border are criminals, unless they suddenly become a valuable resource in protecting the bottom line of big business by working under the table. The reasons are quite different but both parties are refusing to resolve the issue, much less even come close to it. The real issue is that the United States is a sovereign country and should act as such. Immigration has rules for good reasons and the U.S. labor laws are also in place for good reasons. The hypocrisy of both parties on this issue has no good reason.

The second example is capital punishment. The left views capital punishment as cruel and unusual and claims the state has no right to kill people. At the same time they champion the killing of unborn children and support terrorist organizations overseas actively involved in the killing of innocents. The right is no better. They have allowed the laws involved around capital punishment to metastasize into a cancerous tangle that has reduced the effectiveness of the punishment to a moot point. Execution is not there to provide entertainment value or even revenge. It is there to act as a deterrent just as every other law with a stick attached to it is put in place. Our government isn’t interested in exacting punishment, it is interested in promoting good behavior, and yes, there is a difference between god and bad behavior.

The last example is abortion. It ties in with capital punishment because of a particular hypocrisy of the left. It is almost a certainty that most of the supporters of abortion know that a human life is being destroyed each time an abortion is performed. They also know that well over 99% of all abortions occur without a medical necessity. They simply cannot acknowledge that realization because of political necessity. The party agenda is far more important than human life…check that, human life that cannot vote.

I received several rather incendiary comments on this topic because I used the example of a woman’s unborn child being killed and the killer not being sentenced for the murder of that child. The point was missed, and I doubt it will ever be got. The person who pulled that trigger should be sentenced just as stringently for the killing of an unborn child as they would be for the killing of a 50 year old man. The age, sex, race, or economic status of a life should not matter. Wanton killing is wanton killing, regardless of the circumstance of the victim. Where are NOW, the ACLU and every other abortion rights group on this issue? They are silent as is to be expected, because the life of a child in the womb is nothing to them. They have their own agenda and that is the furtherance of their own political power. This football is simply a means to an end.

The right has its own problems where this issue is concerned. A few churches and several individuals have acted with the same fanaticism as members of the Taliban. The bombing of clinics and the killing of doctors have done nothing but place their cause in a bad light. Breaking the law is not the answer. Committing murder certainly is not the answer. Education is and it is going to take a long, long time because, though individuals may be intelligent, people are stupid. Just take a look at what we think is good television if you don’t believe me.

Remember the famous catch phrase that Bush Jr. proclaimed while he was raking in millions of dollars of bribe money from Mexico, “…doing jobs that Americans won’t do.”?  He uttered that bit of rubbish while at the same time his friends in corporate America were firing American workers and shipping those lost jobs overseas.

Here in Southern Nevada we have developers building massive billion dollar resorts. In nearly every case the contractors doing the work have dozens of illegals on the job site. Many of these illegal workers carry the same phony social security ID as their buddy. Big business loves the idea of being able to pay upwards of ten wetbacks for the price of one American. Bush should have said his catchphrase a little differently, “…doing jobs that Americans won’t do at that price.” It’s a funny thing about the United States, we citizens insist on being treated fairly. Here in Nevada, it appears that the Republican Party considers fairness, real fairness, not that phony liberal nonsense, unfair. I suppose that is why they have worked overtime to remove Nevada’s citizens from the political process. You see, if the voter cannot have a direct impact on the fundamental decisions that affect their daily lives, the corrupt have an additional layer of protection.

The Fifteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution reads thusly: Section. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Two brief paragraphs and one huge impact. It is no wonder that in recent history several states have had highly contentious court cases over what this amendment actually says. As far as the English language is concerned, the most important word in this right is the word, “abridged”. That means that if any person, entity, agency or government does anything to prevent a legal voter from voting for the person of their choice, they have violated the constitution. If a state passes a law restricting the ballot process, that state has violated the constitution. Well, here in Nevada, we apparently love illegal immigration. We even register them to vote as the Acorn story proves. However, we don’t want the legal citizens to vote freely, we only want them to vote for what the political parties say they can. Even though a write-in ballot is provided by federal law and you can go online and print one out, Nevada won’t let you use it. I know the 10^th Amendment gives certain rights to the states, but it doesn’t do that.

Unfortunately, try to get your rights reestablished in a state that has nearly every legislator and judge bought and paid for by those businesses profiting from corruption.

Bankrupt the state? Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.