By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A bill filed Tuesday seeks to crack down on illegal immigration by, among other things, making it a felony in Arkansas to provide transportation or shelter to anyone who is in the country illegally.
House Bill 1093 by Rep. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, also would ban illegal immigrants from receiving college scholarships, in-state college tuition or other financial aid; require proof of citizenship or legal residence in the U.S. as a condition for obtaining an identification document; and require the Arkansas State Police to establish a unit to investigate the sale or distribution of false ID documents.
Other provisions would require authorities to check the immigration status of anyone arrested for a felony or driving while intoxicated and require public employers to check the work eligibility status of all new contracted employees.
“Our resources in this state are limited,” Sample said. “It’s the job of the Legislature to protect those resources and make sure that only citizens of the United States and Arkansas and those with legal status are receiving them.”
Sample said he did not have an estimate of the cost to enforce his proposals.
The Rev. Steve Copley, chairman of the Arkansas Friendship Coalition, a group formed to oppose punitive anti-illegal immigration laws at the state level, said Tuesday that Sample’s bill would unnecessarily duplicate some existing federal laws and would require employers to check the status of employees via the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program, which is being challenged in court in some states.
Copley also said the group believes illegal immigration should be addressed at the federal level.
“We’re going to work very hard to see it defeated,” he said.
Sample’s bill mirrors a law in Oklahoma that is considered one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country.
Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, has said she may file a bill that would offer in-state tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants. A similar bill she filed 2005 as a House member failed in the Legislature after then-Attorney General Mike Beebe said it would violate federal law.
