Top Indiana GOP Rep Stonewalling Bill To Boost Immigration Laws

The Republican chairwoman of the Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee won’t say why she is stonewalling state efforts to complement President Donald Trump’s efforts to address illegal immigration after four years of open borders.

The Republican-led Indiana House passed HB 1531 that would, in part, stop illegal aliens from undercutting hard-working Hoosiers by creating penalties for employers who knowingly hire or employ illegal aliens. The legislation states an employer is not in violation of the law if he “engaged in reasonable diligence to confirm the work eligibility…”

If found engaging in illegal employment, the employer has 15 days to terminate the alien and provide proof to the state attorney general in the form of a signed affidavit. Otherwise, the consequence is the “suspension of all of the employer’s operating authorizations at the location or locations where the violation or violations occurred for a period of one hundred eighty days.”

The legislation would also make clear that all Indiana law enforcement must honor a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer request and hold a suspect in custody for 48 hours. It would also permit the state to gather data to determine how illegal immigration affects citizens and public resources, and to consider withholding state funds from localities that refuse to enforce immigration laws.

But Sen. Liz Brown has yet to bring the legislation the vast majority of her party supports for a committee vote, effectively freezing it. If the legislation passes a committee vote, it will move to the Senate floor and likely be passed into law given its support among the state Republican caucus. But if Brown does not allow a vote, it will die with the end of the legislative session in one month.

Brown did not respond to an inquiry from The Federalist about whether she plans to allow her colleagues to vote on the bill.

There are, however, two additional ways the legislation could make it out of committee. In one, Senate President Pro-Tem Rodric Bray could reassign the legislation to another committee. Bray did not return a request for comment. The other way is via rules stating “the author of such bill or any member of the Senate shall have the right to call the attention of the Senate to such fact.” Two-thirds of state senators can then vote to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.

R.J. Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement and a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Federalist it’s “unfathomable that states would ignore the overwhelming immigration enforcement mandate we won on in November, yet the Indiana Senate still won’t even set HB 1531 for a hearing.”

“Small, piecemeal measures like the handful of other immigration bills moving in Indiana are not enough and are no substitute for the meaningful reforms in HB 1531. As Congress works through reconciliation, states must step up,” he said.

Despite this roadblock, the majority of Indiana Republicans support the bill, state officials told The Federalist. The two top vote-getters in Indiana in 2024’s elections were Trump and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, both strong supporters of immigration enforcement. State Rep. J.D. Prescott, who introduced the legislation, said its main goal is “to protect American workers.”

“The main portion of this bill is to protect American workers. We’re going to make sure companies are following the law. It’s already illegal to hire illegal immigrants based off of federal law, so we just want to make sure that our state law has an enforcement provision for that,” Prescott said in a statement to The Federalist. “Right now I know that the current administration is doing a good job of trying to make sure we have the southern border closed, but previous administrations have failed to do the job, so we want to make sure we have resources here within our state to enforce federal policy from a state standpoint. This is a tried-and-true method that has been taken up in other states as well.”

Rokita called the legislation “critically important.” Illegal immigration is a top concern of Hoosier voters.

“It would directly address the concerns about illegal immigration that legislators and I hear from constituents all the time. This issue isn’t going away, and both my office and the General Assembly have an obligation to Hoosiers to act decisively to help keep illegal aliens out of our communities,” Rokita said in a statement to The Federalist. “HB 1531 would be a big step toward fulfilling that obligation.”

Two months into Trump’s presidency, law enforcement actions targeting illegal migrants are nowhere near levels needed to address the record-breaking numbers the Biden administration invited, overwhelming public services, housing, and some towns. Biden illegally admitted at least an estimated 10 million foreign citizens to compete with American workers. At the current rate, just 528,000 will be returned to their countries by the end of Trump’s final term.

The vast majority of illegal migrants paid cartels to help them enter the United States either in cash or in debt. This means their employment subsidizes international terrorism and promotes a vast network of indentured servitude that also undercuts wages for American workers.

Indiana U.S. Sen. Jim Banks told The Federalist that “Hoosiers expect us all to work together at the state, local and federal levels to support ICE and deport illegal criminals from our streets. This bill helps do that in a big way.”

The bill is also supported by the Indiana Republican Party’s national representatives Sen. Todd Young, and U.S. Reps. Marlin Stutzman, Mark Messmer, Jim Baird, and Erin Houchin. U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym said H.B. 1531 “is the commonsense legislation needed to tackle the urgent challenges of illegal immigration head-on.”

“For too long, Indiana’s communities have shouldered the fallout of the failed Biden-Harris border policies,” Yakym said. “This bill is critical to strengthening our laws, protecting our communities, and safeguarding taxpayer dollars. I urge the Indiana General Assembly to get this done.”

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2