Anti-Illegal Immigration Legislation Reaches Committee

Intro: Legislation that would create harsher penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal workers gained support from one influential state employee.

Amy Becker has more from Jefferson City.

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State Treasurer and gubernatorial candidate Sarah Steelman lent her support in favor of revoking an employer's business license for three years if they are caught with illegal workers. If the employer is caught a second time, the license is revoked indefinitely.

Steelman cited her own involvement in an incident in O'Fallon where businesses were hiring illegal workers, saying it was her duty to protect Missouri taxpayers.

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Description: It also creates an unfair advantage to those employers who are not paying those required taxes, to those law abiding employers who are paying those taxes.

The issue is covered in two bills sponsored by Republican Senator Scott Rupp and Democratic Senator Tim Green. Rupp says the legislation is in response to the failure and unwillingness of the federal government to deal with the illegal immigration issue.

Reporting from the State Capitol, I'm Amy Becker, KMOX News.

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Intro: A package of illegal foreigner bills sparked a tennis match between two Senate committee members.

Amy Becker has more from Jefferson City.

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Joplin Republican Senator Gary Nodler and St. Louis Democratic Senator Jeff Smith had separate interpretations of one witnesses testimony.

The bill at hand would eliminate the possibility of illegal foreigners receiving public benefits. Nodler questioned the stance of opposition witness Clark Brown of the Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Association:

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Description: What is the interest of your group in defending the interest of the illegal immigrants?

Smith jumped in with his own interpretation of the testimony:

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Description: I interpreted your testimony particularly your reference to racial profiling, as being a concern that some as we generally know to be the case with racial profiling that some people who are innocent probably American citizens, are caught up in a net, a net that is cast for a certain group of people and then ends up affecting a group of people who it should not affect.

The bill has yet to be voted on by the Senate Pensions Committee.

Reporting from the State Capitol, I'm Amy Becker, KMOX News.