Red States Urge Social Workers to Enforce Immigration Rules

A growing number of conservative states are mandating that state and local social service providers check and report the immigration status of the people they serve — in some cases threatening stiff penalties for public employees who don’t comply.

Under federal law, immigrants who are in the United States illegally are generally barred from receiving public benefits such as health care, food assistance and housing assistance, although a few left-leaning states employ their own money to provide such benefits.

Supporters of the modern screening and reporting laws say they will assist curb illegal immigration by making it harder for people who are ineligible for public assistance to receive it.

Government-funded health care, housing subsidies and the right to a driver’s license are an “attractant that encourages illegal immigration,” said Cooper Smith, director of homeland security and immigration at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank that has worked with the current Trump administration on policy development.

Federal benefits, Smith said, are “an incentive for (immigrants) to come here, cross the border and settle here, and we don’t want to see that.”

In Tennessee, lawmakers sent this week an invoice to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, which would require all state and local governments to check the immigration status of people applying for federal, state or local government benefits and report those who are here illegally to the Legislature and the state’s modern immigration agency.

The measure, which the governor is expected to sign, authorizes the attorney general to investigate possible violations and threatens prison time or loss of state funding for workers or agencies that fail to comply.

The potential penalties in Tennessee law are particularly severe, but this year Indiana, UtahAnd Wyoming Laws have also been passed requiring state and local authorities to verify the immigration status of people applying for certain benefits. In Indiana and Wyoming, authorities also must report immigrants who are here illegally to federal authorities. Louisiana passed a similar verification and reporting law last year.

Indiana and Wyoming laws extend beyond the individual people applying for assistance.

When reviewing an application for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Indiana law requires authorities to notify federal authorities if they cannot verify immigration status any Member of an applicant’s household. Similarly, Wyoming law requires the state Department of Health and Family Services to notify federal immigration authorities if they discover that someone applying for public benefits is living in a household that also includes a person who is here illegally.

Critics say the modern state laws will prevent many people eligible for benefits — particularly those with family members living here illegally — from getting the assist they deserve and force state and local officials to take on an immigration enforcement role that they are ill-equipped to handle.

“You have to do this verification process for everyone who walks in the door. This slows down services to every Tennessean in the name of data collection and trying to do assessments that people aren’t trained to do,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro said last month during debate on the bill.

“There is probably no one who understands enough of the rules to make a decision like that,” he said. “But we’re forcing this decision on every single government office in the state of Tennessee — it’s just a little crazy.”

Tanya Broder, an attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, which advocates for immigrants, said the modern laws are an escalation of government anti-immigration efforts. She said the measures show that conservative states are moving forward in lockstep with the Trump administration.

“There are many, many states that restrict public access to state and local public benefits, but some of these reporting requirements that states are now proposing likely violate the law,” Broder said. “I think they are sowing a campaign of fear and misinformation.”

Broder added that fear of punishment could lead fleeting workers in Tennessee to over-report and potentially engage in racial profiling.

The Tennessee bill is part of one sweep Package of immigration enforcement measures passed by the state parliament this year. Tennessee’s comprehensive immigration agenda was developed in coordination with the White House, particularly with Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Earlier this month, Lee signed one measure That requires state judges to work with federal immigration authorities. And last month the governor signed A The invoice That makes it a felony under Tennessee law for an adult to refuse or fail to leave the state within 90 days of a final deportation order. The law also makes it a felony for immigrants to attempt to enter the state while they have a pending deportation order.

Other bills that would be required call on local sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and make it illegal for people living in the U.S. illegally to operate A commercial vehicle or truck in the state sits on Lee’s desk waiting for his signature.

Smith of the America First Policy Institute said Tennessee serves as “a model for other states to follow.”

Republicans have had difficulty securing funding for the Department of Homeland Security this year, Smith noted, “so they know that their ability to pass meaningful legal immigration reform through both houses of Congress and signed by the president is very, very unlikely,” he said. “So the next step is to do as much as we can at the state level.”

Julia Gelatt, deputy director at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, agreed with Smith’s assessment of the political situation.

“There are things that the federal government cannot control or that may be more difficult to achieve at the federal level, particularly if Congress does not pass bills,” Gelatt said.

“We know that Stephen Miller has advised Tennessee on its immigration laws, and I think his philosophy is that the federal and state governments should make life in the United States so difficult for undocumented people that they decide to go home.”

Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at shatlani@stateline.org.