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A Republican-sponsored bill would penalize immigrants who enter Ohio without federal legal status

By: Sarah Donaldson | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Thursday, October 17, 2024

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Some Republican state lawmakers want to penalize immigrants for entering Ohio if they haven’t gotten legal authorization to be in the United States.

Introduced by Reps. Gary Click (R-Vickery) and Nick Santucci (R-Howland Twp.), House Bill 671 would create felony “unlawful presence in the state” charges and attach a one-year prison sentence and several hundred dollars’ worth of fines as punishment.

HB 671 is modeled after an Oklahoma law, which is currently on hold in federal court. According to KOSU, that law would have similarly let non-federal law enforcement arrest and jail immigrants residing in Oklahoma illegally.

Click said he wants state law to convey that Ohio is not a “sanctuary state” for illegal immigration. He cited a recent Baldwin Wallace poll of Ohioans who put immigration high on their list of issues.

“If we put some teeth to it, put a little bite into it, they say, ‘Okay, well, if I do come back illegally, I’m not going to Ohio,’” Click said in a Friday interview.

State laws on immigration are generally preempted by federal policy. The federal government has exclusive authority over the issue, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, oftentimes rendering statewide efforts null.

Vincent Wells, an attorney with Community Refugee and Immigration Services, said HB 671 raises constitutional questions.

“Beyond the constitutional questions that HB 671 raises, the bill on its face demonstrates a significant misunderstanding of Federal Immigration Law. (The bill) essentially only considers three statuses: pending asylum, DACA, and pending a ‘visa,’” Wells wrote in an email, adding the potential exclusion of other statuses breaks with federal law.

HB 671 could also put state and local police in a dicey position, he said, as they try and determine whether a person is legally in the country.

Any bills that do not make it to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk by December would need to be reintroduced next year. Click said it’s unlikely this passes this legislative cycle, but he plans to reintroduce it next year, regardless of the presidential election’s outcome.

“It’s really a good time to kind of refine it without having to introduce a (substitute) bill,” Click said.

Aside from Click and Santucci, 14 other Ohio House GOP lawmakers have signed onto HB 671.