Indiana Upgrades Immigration Bill As States Step Up To Boost Deportation Efforts

The Federalist ^ | February 03, 2026 | Joy Pullmann

[E. Pluribus Unum]

On Monday Indiana lawmakers upgraded an immigration bill to require sheriffs to honor immigration detainers, require hospitals to identify illegal aliens using Medicaid, and penalize employers that hire illegal labor.

State Rep. J.D. Prescott successfully amended Senate Bill 76 in committee Monday to incorporate key measures of a stronger enforcement bill he proposed in the House, known as the Fairness Act. The bill now goes to the full state House for a vote and then back to the Senate to accept the amendments.

“The goal is to get this into a bill where the state of Indiana can partner with the Trump administration and Tom Homan … doing everything we can as a state to assist in those efforts to honor detainer requests, assist ICE in getting these illegal immigrants out of our state and country and make sure that employers are doing the right thing by only hiring a legal workforce,” Prescot told The Federalist in a phone call.

Supermajority-Republican Indiana has lagged behind other conservative states in mandating cooperation with federal immigration enforcement after former President Joe Biden’s open borders admitted historic numbers of fraudulently present foreigners. U.S. border czar Tom Homan visited Indiana in October to support the Fairness Act after Republican Sen. Liz Brown refused to allow a vote on a similar proposal in spring 2025.

After getting a primary opponent, Brown sponsored SB76 in the current session. Prescott noted Brown accepted his friendly amendments and worked with him to improve SB76.

Eighteen states require law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in some way, which the Indiana bill enhances. Texas has required this since 2017. Georgia passed an anti-sanctuary city law in 2024, as did Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee in 2025. Florida has required local police to cooperate with...

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TOPICS: Government; Politics/Elections
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[FamiliarFace]

***Supermajority-Republican Indiana has lagged behind other conservative states***

I’m thrilled to see Indiana work on this. About time. I hope it ends up passing through both the state house and the state senate.

[PGalt]

GREAT! Stop CRIMMIGRATION.

[FreedomNotSafety]

“…illegal aliens using Medicaid.” No…
You
Hospitals using Medicaid to pay for illegals’ care.

[4Runner]

"You know what I think. I think you had a great idea. And I got the credit for it."

"Great. Enjoy it."

"You know what, Pete?"

"You need to go find a cardboard box. Put your things in it."

(Drags on cigarette, walks out door of office)

"You picked a hell of a time to buy an apartment".

[FrankRizzo890]

“penalize employers that hire illegal labor”

Things I never thought I’d see!

[RetiredTexasVet]

Wise idea. Illegals costs each state billions of dollars when you add up the cost of additional school rooms & teachers, unpaid medical bills, welfare, police costs, prison costs, etc.

[AZJeep]

AZ was the first state requiring local police to work with ICE.
However, the bill was deemed unconstitutional by some liberal judge and, I think the old liberal SC.
The reasoning was that ONLY federal government has the right to enforce the immigration laws!
So according to this judgment, the ICE can do pretty much anything to enforce the immigration laws and all sanctuary city actions are unconstitutional!
AZ came even with some workarounds, like arresting illegal for trespassing on private lands!

But now we got Dem gov, which vetoes most of the bills, especially one like that.

However most of county sheriffs send all illegals from jail to ICE automatically!

[FamiliarFace]

I’m not sure, but I think LEO cooperate with ICE here for the most part. It’s a pretty red state with a few blue areas to make things difficult, but that’s like anywhere these days.

I have found that Indiana is a little late to the party on a lot of things. I’ve only been here a dozen years. In that time they finally let alcohol to be sold on Sunday. You couldn’t buy even beer or wine on Sundays when we first moved here. Now it can be sold after noon until 8 pm on Sundays. Spirits as well!

However, having said that, the little town I live in (pop. 10,000) is a modern day Mayberry, so if that’s what it takes, I guess there are benefits to being “slow” to make changes.