Senate Bill 1, otherwise known as the “immigration bill” or the “sanctuary bill,” was released by the Repubs in the state Senate as their top priority bill for this session. It was immediately condemned by persons and groups across the state, even while its sponsors insisted it was not really about immigration or immigrants, and while those same sponsors took offense when some critics called it racist.
So, why was it introduced, and why was it introduced as the Senate Republicans’ top priority for this session?
Not a real problem – but a really bad bill
Let’s get this out of the way up front: this is a bad bill addressing a non-existent problem.
We don’t have a problem with undocumented immigrants in Kentucky, no matter what Republican election ads say. We don’t have hordes of Colombian gang members descending on the state, and immigrants are not driving our drug-abuse epidemic.
In fact, immigrants (both documented and undocumented) play a vital role in the economy of Kentucky. Large numbers of them work in construction, agriculture, food service, and the horse industry. Ask anyone involved in those fields what would happen if all those immigrants left the state.
And yet, Republicans have introduced a bill that not only requires all public employees (note that language) to respond to ICE information requests if asked, it also requires those same public employees to use their “best efforts” to actively determine if the persons they are working with are undocumented. In other words, they are supposed to ask for citizenship papers every time they interact with someone.
And that “public employee” part? It includes not only all state employees, but also anyone working for any agency or organization that gets 25% or more of its funding from state funds. That would include health departments, various counseling and drug abuse agencies, mental health agencies – you get the idea. So now we’re going to drive immigrants of all kinds away from our health departments, even as we deal with public health emergencies like Hep-A and the flu.
Those same “public employees” are required to give ICE information on the people they deal with, even if ICE doesn’t have a warrant. As pointed out by one agency, they are prohibited in Federal law from sharing personal information about their clients without a warrant. If they do, they lose their Federal funding.
And let’s not forget that when Arizona implemented a “papers please” bill of their own, they wound up with a boycott of their state. Are we ready for that?
So, we have a bad bill, with far-reaching consequences, that addresses a “problem” that is way, way down the list of things our legislature should be worried about. (Hello, budget? Public education? Opioid crisis? Jobs?)
Obviously, it was not introduced as their top priority because it is actually a top priority.
So, since SB 1 isn’t addressing a significant problem, is a really bad bill, will surely be vetoed, and could possibly be thrown out in a court challenge, WHY did Senate Republicans decide to introduce it as their #1 priority in this session?
SB 1 as political dog-whistle
It’s simple – it’s a political dog-whistle to voters who are scared of brown people, and a way to put Dems over a barrel come this fall.
The Repubs don’t care if it actually becomes law. They just want to get Dems on the record as voting against it, then use that vote against them this fall.
I mean, the ads write themselves. “This Socialist Democrat voted to allow illegals to take your job, mooch off your government, and bring drugs into your community!” Accompanied, of course, by ominous music, even more ominous narration, and even MORE ominous pictures of drug dealers and street gangs. And in case you think I’m exaggerating, cast your mind back to the ads during last year’s state elections, where racist fear-mongering played a major role in Republican ads and talking points.
It’s all bullshit. And the Republicans know it’s all bullshit – but they don’t care, because their goal is to win elections, and they figure this bill will help them do that.
SB 1 as distraction
Political dog-whistle is obvious. But, there might be a second reason.
I was in a meeting of activists in Frankfort when SB 1 came up, and the entire room couldn’t stop talking about how bad it is. And even though they were right — it’s a trainwreck of a bill — I couldn’t help but wonder at the amount of time and energy given to that one bill.
Is it possible that the other reason the Repubs decided to make it their #1 bill was to get everyone in a lather about it? To get every activist group — maybe even on both sides of the issue — to focus so much on this one bill that they miss some other bills, the ones that the Repubs REALLY care about?
Let’s be clear — I don’t think Republicans care a whit about immigration, and especially not in Kentucky. What I think they DO care about is cutting income taxes even more, taking away even the safety regulations we still have, and whacking at any program that doesn’t fit their dystopian view of government.
So if they can use a bill about immigration to get everyone to “Look over here!” while they quietly raise the sales tax to 8% and cut the local health departments to the bone and beyond, they will certainly try to do so.
What’s the solution, then?
The solution, of course, is to be able to do more than one thing at a time. To be able to call out ALL the bad bills in this year’s session, and not just the ones getting all the attention.
Let’s be clear: SB 1 is a bad bill, and deserves to be trashed and forgotten. And anyone using it for political purposes cares more about winning than about the people they supposedly serve.
But let’s also pay attention to the OTHER bills. There are economic bills that will hurt the state and its people, and will make inequality even worse. There are “issue” bills that will further divide us.
And believe it or not, there are actually some GOOD bills – bills that move our state forward, bills that improve our state’s finances, bills that make our people’s lives better. THOSE are the bills our leges should be spending their time addressing.
Let’s hope they, too, realize that they only have 60 working days to make things better, and that SB 1 deserves not another second of their time. They should throw it out now.
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