A four-member Senate subcommittee on immigration is serving as the hearing room and often kill zone for measures addressing the hot-button political issue of the General Assembly session.
The panel, headed by Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, and the larger Senate Courts of Justice Committee already dispatched a number of proposals that would have resulted in more restrictions or scrutiny for illegal immigrants.
“We weed out the bad bills,” Saslaw, D-Fairfax, told The Examiner. “Hell, if it says ‘Let’s get ‘em,’ with respect for immigrants, and a lot of them do, we’re not going to pass those.”
The Senate special subcommittee on immigration shot down measures denying illegal immigrants access to tax-relief programs when advocates couldn’t prove they were already using the programs. Another bill requiring employers to check the legal status of applicants through the computerized federal E-Verify program was recommended for inaction because there were federal concerns about its accuracy.
But critics call the subcommittee a death chamber for productive measures that voters demand, such as curbs on illegal immigrants receiving in-state tuition or public higher education.
“There’s nowhere else in the entire General Assembly that these bills will be reviewed as negatively,” Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, who said the small panel lets lawmakers avoid voting on the controversial issue. “They’re definitely trying to box these babies in so folks don’t have to vote on these bills.”
Immigrant advocates, like lobbyist Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, hail the subcommittee for giving the bills a fair review, while critics of illegal immigration, like Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, say it is “set up to kill any efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.”
But Saslaw defended the committee. “Most of those bills, they’re bills in search of a problem,” he said. “I’m not down here to help somebody help write a campaign brochure.”
