Senate could vote next week to send immigrant employment bill to governor

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Senate leaders late Thursday said they plan to vote next week whether to send Gov. Mike Braun a bill banning employers from hiring someone who lacks legal immigration status.

The bill has already passed both chambers but must return to the Senate because of extensive changes in the House. Early Thursday morning, the bill’s original author, Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, said Senate Republicans plan to vote to concur with the House’s changes, thereby sending the bill directly to the governor.

Senate Bill 76, called the FAIRNESS Act by its authors, would prohibit employers from recruiting, hiring or employing someone who is not authorized to work in Indiana. Employers would not face legal liability if they can demonstrate they used E-Verify or a similar program to try to verify someone’s status. The bill requires all governmental bodies to comply with immigration detainers and other requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Among other things, that provision would require schools to respond to ICE inquiries. Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican who has long called for the bill, said that provision changes little in practice.

It’s just the idea that you can’t impede federal law enforcement if they need to get into a school, for example, to reunite a child with a paren...