INDIANAPOLIS (INDIANA NEWS SERVICE) - Indiana House Judiciary Committee members passed an amended version of Senate Bill 76 this week. If the measure becomes law, local governments and Indiana public schools and colleges must comply with ICE immigration detainer requests.
The bill would also allow the Indiana attorney general to target businesses that knowingly hire, recruit or employ undocumented immigrants.
Attorney and human rights activist Chip Pitts is against the measure. He claimed ICE’s tactics and involvement in the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota violate the U.S. Constitution.
“They use brutality and really aggressive tactics, breaking windows without having a probable cause of individualized fact-based suspicion, as required by the Fourth Amendment, and then hauling pregnant women out, beating people, and they’ve done this to hundreds of U.S. citizens,” he said. “They’ve even deported not just people seeking asylum, but also U.S. citizens.”
Pitts said the Fourth Amendment requires a judicial warrant before a house is entered by force. However, ICE has been disobeying this rule under new federal guidance that allows them to enter homes with only an administrative warrant. He added that he believes immigration agents using pepper spray and tear gas against protestors is a violation of the First Amendment, arguing demonstrators should have the right to express their views peacefully.
The bill is now headed to the full House for consideration.
Meanwhile, opposition to ICE remains strong across the state. Hundreds of students at several central Indiana high schools walked out of their classrooms as part of National Student Walkout Day on Monday. Streets near North Central, Brebeuf Jesuit and Noblesville high schools were blocked while the peaceful protestors waved signs and chanted.
Pitts said people can take their power back.
“We, the people, can come back,” he said. “We’ve seen it with the No Kings protests in the spring of last year, and there’s another one on March 28 that I hope people will show up for. But letting the people know that they have a voice in this and empowering their congressional representatives and demanding that they do the right thing.”
He said one of the most important things people can do is to return to talking with their neighbors about difficult political issues, especially immigration enforcement.
Terri Dee wrote this article.
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