Bills targeting illegals get bipartisan boost

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Republicans and Democrats in Virginia are teaming up on at least a dozen legislative measures that would crack down on illegal aliens in the state.

The legislation includes barring the use of taxpayer money to fund day-laborer centers, penalizing businesses that employ illegal aliens and requiring state police to enter an agreement with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would allow state police to enforce immigration laws.

Other measures would allow officers to report to federal officials the names of juvenile delinquents who might be in the U.S. illegally, and give the state authority to penalize the manufacture or use of fake identification documents.

Delegate John S. Reid, Henrico Republican, said Virginia's swelling immigrant population makes such legislation necessary.

"I think people are beginning to see there's been an influx in the immigrant population in Virginia [and] I think the public is beginning to realize there is some cost associated with it," he said.

Immigration was ranked sixth in the National Conference of State Legislatures' forecast of the top 10 issues for 2006. Last year, state legislatures considered 300 bills on immigrants and refugees and approved 36.

Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for House Speaker William J. Howell, said "there's no real way to know" which legislation will pass during this year's General Assembly session in Virginia.

"I think you'll see a lot of attention focused around budgetary issues, particularly the day-labor centers and in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants," he said. "There will certainly be some attention on gangs, which is also a growing problem that also stems from illegal immigration."

Mr. Reid has resubmitted legislation this year that would bar aliens from paying in-state tuition at state colleges and universities. In recent years, the House approved the measure but the Senate or the governor rejected it.

Mr. Reid thinks his measure has a good chance of passing the full legislature this year. "In a state where military personnel who are transferred here can't get in-state tuition for their children, it's ridiculous [that] someone who isn't in the state legally can," he said.