February 15, 2007
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
media@aclu.org
RICHMOND, VA-The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia today
welcomed the news that two Senate committees have dispensed with most of the
anti-immigrant bills in the Virginia legislature.
"We are
pleased that the Senate turned back legislation that would have posed serious
threats to our immigrant community," said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director
Kent Willis. "In a time of such strong anti-immigrant sentiment, many of
these measures would have substantially increased discrimination based on
nationality."
Most of the action took place yesterday and today in
Senate Courts of Justice Committee and General Laws Committee, where six
different bills were killed.
All six of the bills had easily
passed the more improvident House of Delegates, Willis said.
Three of these bills, HB 1618, HB 1970, and HB 2926, would have
allowed state and local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration
laws. All were killed by the Senate Courts of Justice committee in the
past two days.
"The ACLU opposed these bills because the
Constitution clearly vests the federal government with the authority to oversee
immigration," said Willis. "Moreover, the expansion of these powers to local law
enforcement officers not thoroughly trained in immigration law will certainly
lead to selective enforcement of the law on the basis of race and national
origin."
HB 2622, which would have made it a felony to
harbor an undocumented immigrant, was passed by indefinitely yesterday in Senate
Courts.
HB 2687, which allows lawsuits to be filed against
employers by employees replaced by undocumented immigrants, was also killed by
Senate Courts yesterday.
Senate General Laws and Technology
Committee killed HB 2623, which would have made it impossible for any
undocumented immigrant to receive in-state tuition. The ACLU believes that
such a law unfairly punishes children, who do not have a choice in where they
live.
For more information on state bills affecting
immigrants (as well as other legislation) go to
www.acluva.org
