An Indiana immigration bill allowing local and state police to enforce federal immigration laws and for those officers to cooperate with ICE passed and was amended in the House Judiciary Committee Monday to more closely mirror a bill that didn’t advance in last year’s session.
Legislators listened to more than 5 hours of tesitmony as 62 people testified. The majority of people spoke in opposition to the bill, but one of the 12 people testifying in support of it advocated for a 30-year moratorium on immigration to avoid the “bad” mixing of populations from other countries.
Senate Bill 76, authored by State Sen. Liz Brown, states that the enforcement of federal immigration laws may be carried out by federal, state or local law enforcement. Under the bill, the Department of Correction will provide training to all sheriffs-elect on how to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The bill was amended in the House Judiciary committee on Monday by State Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City, to more closely align with the bill he proposed last year known as the FAIRNESS Act: Fostering and Advancing Immigration Reforms Necessary to Ensure Safety and Security. Brown was criticized by Attorney General Todd Rokita after the 2025 session for not advancing the FAIRNESS Act when it reached a Senate committee she chaired.
Brown said she filed Senate Bill 76 because she felt the FAIRNESS Act didn’t address law enforcement training.
“We have always had cooperative task force, if you will, between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. I think the most important part of this bill going forward is our local law enforcement wants to help our federal law enforcement partners enforce the laws, immigration laws, that are on the books,” Brown said.
Prescott amended the bill Monday to allow the Attorney General to sue a government agency, school or jail that doesn’t comply with federal immigration officials with a penalty of $10,000 for each violation. The amendment also states that a government body couldn’t be sued for complying with the bill. The amendment further removes sanctuary city laws, Prescott said. The amendment was approved in a voice vote.
If someone is detained under an immigration detainer request, the bill states that the governmental body should give the judge authority to either grant or deny the person’s release on bail as well as record in their file, comply with and inform the detainee of the immigration detainer request.
The bill prohibits an employer from recklessly or intentionally hiring or employing an undocumented immigrant. The bill allows the attorney general to sue employers who hire undocumented immigrants and report the person to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
Further, the bill requires the legislative council receive a report with data with the number of Hoosiers who aren’t citizens and are enrolled in or receiving benefits through the Indiana Residential Care Assistance Program, public assistance and welfare programs, family assistance services, Medicaid and Community Mental Health Services.
Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for benefits, but certain categories of legal immigrants, such as those with a Green Card or asylum claims, can be eligible.
If a law enforcement officer, government body or educational institution is sued the attorney general shall defend the party, the bill states. It also removes mens rea standard — or criminal intent — when it comes to governmental or educational institutions for violating the citizenship and immigration status information and enforcement of federal laws.
The bill allows the governor to withhold state grants or funding to a city that doesn’t comply with the law.
Ryan Neuhaus, of the Heritage Foundation, said he supports the bill because “law that is toothless is no law at all.” America is facing an immigration crisis, Neuhaus said, and said he’d support a temporary moratorium on immigration “to incentivize assimilation.”
Neuhaus said immigration impacts “the demographics of this country,” which he elaborated on through questions from State Rep. Maureen Bauer, D-South Bend, as the “bad” mixing of populations from other countries.
“If you bring in people who have no respect for your nation, for its heritage, or for its cultural groundings, that belittles the constitution. That actually eliminates the ability for us to uphold the law,” Neuhaus said.
None of the Republican members of the committee denounced the positions Neuhaus presented.
In November, Neuhaus resigned as chief of staff aftere Heritage President Kevin Roberts defended Tucker Carlson’s interview of antisemitic white nationalist Nick Fuentes, according to The Hill newspaper. Many Heritage staffers quit, but Neuhaus defended Roberts’ statement. He was reassigned to the conservative think tank’s Simon Center for American Studies, the Hill’s report stated.
During her closing remarks, State Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn, D-Fishers, said the testimony was hard for her to listen to because her husband is a different race than her and they have biracial children. She expressed shock at the call for a moratorium on immigration.
“What are we perpetuating?” Garcia Wilburn said.
Blake Lanning, assistant chief deputy for the Indiana Attorney General, said the office supports the bill as it was amended because it more closely aligns with the FAIRNESS Act, which received support from Border Czar Tom Homan.
The attorney general’s office also supports the state-level penalties for hiring undocumented immigrants, Lanning said, as well as the sanctuary policies in the bill because “enforcement matters.”
Lloyd Arnold, Indiana Department of Correction commissioner, said the department has established “a strong relationship with our federal partners,” and supports the bill.
In October, the department opened a maximum security ICE detention center at Miami Correctional Facility and has since processed more than 1,000 detainees, Arnold said. But Arnold said the department hasn’t received its first payment from the federal government for the ICE facility.
Delaware County Sheriff Tony Skinner, with the Indiana Sheriffs’ Association, said the association supports the bill.
Many of the people who opposed the bill said ICE shouldn’t have expanded authority in Indiana and pointed to the recent killings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis. They also spotlighted Liam Ramos, a 5-year-old living in Minneapolis, who was detained with his father in Texas before being released on Saturday. Liam and his family were legally in the U.S., awaiting a hearing on their asylum claim.
Many students and teachers testified in opposition to the bill because schools could face legal action for not complying with ICE. Many of the educators and students pointed to the numerous students across the state holding protests on Monday to oppose ICE.
Anita Joshi, a pediatrician and Carmel City Council member, said she opposed the bill because it removes local control and could break down trust in local law enforcement. Without that trust, she said, people won’t want to report crimes and communities will be less safe.
As a pediatrician, Joshi said she has seen the stress, lack of sleep, and mental health implications children experience as they worry about their families amid ICE raids.
“I believe that immigrants should have all the rights that they are afforded,” Joshi said.
DeOnyae-Dior Valentina, the executive director of Strength Over Struggle, said while the bill has been framed as cooperation with federal laws and public safety it actually turns local governments and courts to become immigration enforcement agencies.
Samantha Bresnahan, a senior policy specialist with the ACLU Indiana, said the organization opposes the bill because it “raises serious legal and practical concerns.”
For example, under federal law, ICE detainer requests are requests not mandatory orders, Bresnahan said. If a detainer is issued in error or someone is held longer than they are legally allowed, then the local governments violate the person’s Fourth Amendment right and can be held liable, she said.
“This danger is clear when an individual presents proof that they are a United States citizen yet must remain in jail waiting for ICE to clear the hold,” Bresnahan said.
The bill passed 9-4, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats voting against it.
Garcia Wilburn said she opposed the bill because it follows federal policy at a time when Republicans at the federal level have started to question the policies that are being implemented.
“It calls back to a time where we made some grave mistakes as a country,” Garcia Wilburn said. “We are really treading on dangerous ground.”
State Rep. Danny Lopez, R-Carmel, said as a first generation son of political refugees “this is a tough issue, always has been.”
“I think this bill goes a little further than I’d like,” Lopez said. “I’m going to be a yes here to move it, and we’ll see how it goes.”
