Bills pass related to immigration

All three measures, including the two scholarship measures, which contained conflicting language about who can receive financial aid to attend college in Nevada, were approved by the Senate and sent to the Assembly, where their future is uncertain.

Senate Bill 325, which would make English the official language of Nevada, passed on a 19-2 vote after Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, spoke against the measure.

Coffin said that while not racist in its intent, the measure will give state sanction to those in Nevada who are racist and who will use it to further their own agenda.

“What legislation like this does, is bring out the worst in people who are racist,” Coffin said.

No other comments about the bill were made on the floor.

The bill was significantly watered down from its original version. Gone were provisions requiring that most publications of the state be printed in English only, and that state agencies keep track of the cost of providing information in languages other than English.

Added to the bill were statements indicating that the purpose of making English the official language of the state was not to be punitive or discriminatory, but to highlight the importance of the language as a unifying force.

Also voting no on the measure was Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas.

The Senate, with its narrow 11-10 GOP majority, saw a number of efforts by Democrats to amend the immigration-related bills to make them more palatable to their views. Those efforts were quashed.

In a debate on SB325 on Monday, Coffin offered an amendment which proposed to require that employers with five or more workers verify and maintain documentation of the legal work status of their employees.

Coffin said such a measure would make a meaningful difference in illegal immigration, which Coffin said was the real impetus of the bill.

Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who introduced the bill, argued against the amendment, saying it was not related to the issues addressed in SB325. The amendment failed on an 11-10 party line vote.

Coffin predicted the measure would be killed in the Assembly, where a separate bill requiring some employer accountability regarding illegal immigrants passed out of the Democratically controlled lower house on Monday.

That measure, Assembly Bill 383, would allow the state Tax Commission to pull the business licenses of companies that hire undocumented workers. That would not occur, however, until Congress passes legislation on what it intends to do with illegal immigrants. The bill also creates a new felony crime of trafficking in human beings.

Senate Democrats also offered amendments to Senate Bill 415, which would make any state financial aid offered by the Nevada System of Higher Education off limits to illegal residents of Nevada. The bill was introduced by Sen. Joe Heck, R-Henderson.

One amendment would have allowed illegal residents to get a Millennium Scholarship if the students signed affidavits that they intended to become U.S. citizens if offered the chance to do so. That amendment failed Monday on an 11-10 party line vote.

Democrats on Tuesday sought a second amendment to require the citizenship affidavit for college financial assistance, with an unrelated provision to allow children of military families to remain eligible for the Millennium Scholarship even if the families moved out of state during a student’s senior year.

But Senate Republicans instead passed their own amendment to make the scholarship available to the students of relocated military families. No affidavit requirement for illegal residents was included.

That caused a brief spat, as Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, wanted Democratic credit for the military family provision approved in the Republican amendment. All 21 senators were finally added to the amendment.

With the provision for military families included, the bill passed the Senate on a 17-4 vote.

Titus said she would support the bill with a “heavy heart” because of the omission of the affidavit provision. But efforts will be made in the Assembly to add that provision to the bill, she said.

Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, asked how many students the bill would affect.

Heck replied that the higher education system said there are 94 students getting the scholarship now whose citizenship cannot be verified. There are 447 students in the system whose citizenship cannot be verified, he said.

In a sign of some uncertainty by some lawmakers on the issue of illegal immigration, the Senate passed a second measure, dealing only with the Millennium Scholarship. It contained the provision allowing illegal residents to obtain the scholarship if they sign an affidavit stating they will become a U.S. citizen if given the chance.

Senate Bill 52 passed on a 14-7 vote, with many of the same Republicans who supported SB415 voting for the conflicting measure as well.

Many Democrats, who liked the affidavit provision in SB52 opposed the measure however.

Titus said she opposed the bill because of its many other provisions dealing with the Millennium Scholarship, including one providing increased aid for students taking certain degree programs.

Assembly leaders had different views about what will happen with the scholarship measures.

“It is hard to say what we will do (with the Millennium Scholarship bills) until we see them,” said Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas. “The bills over in the Senate have been changing every couple hours.”

But Assembly Minority Leader Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, predicted any Millennium Scholarship bill that denies benefits to noncitizens is dead on arrival in the Assembly because of Democratic opposition.

He said the issue was debated two years ago and Democrats won’t support the Heck bill.

Review-Journal capital bureau chief Ed Vogel contributed to this report.