“(They’ve) violated a federal law. That’s something the poverty center seems to ignore. We just simply ought to have the right, responsibility as a state to identify people who have violated federal laws. If we’re going to ignore this federal law, what other federal laws should we begin to ignore?” Governor Phil Bryant said.
Governor Phil Bryant
“To me, this seems so simple. So very, very clear and so that’s why I am supporting this law.”
– Governor Phil Bryant (R-MS)
Mississippi joins the growing number of states fed up with the Federal failure to enforce immigration laws – and is doing something about it. Last week, State Rep. Becky Currie (R) introduced House Bill 488 (PDF) – the Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act of 2012 – a sweeping piece of legislation which would incorporate the best of previous state bills to come before it.
The bill would allow law enforcement officers to inquire about a person’s immigration status after any “lawful stop, detention or arrest”.
The bill also makes the “willful failure to carry an alien registration documents” a state crime. This is similar to the Arizona and Alabama statutes. And 488 also makes it a felony for an illegal alien to enter into a business transaction with any state entity. This is critical to make it as hard as possible for illegals to establish secure economic foothold in the state – a crucial deterrent.
H.B. 488 would also adopt a statute similar to Alabama’s H.B. 56, requiring proof of proper documentation before a student may enroll in school, to determine whether the child is a foreign national in the U.S. illegally. That portion of the Alabama law was blocked by a Federal appeals court after being upheld by a lower court judge last summer.
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