Posted on 06/17/2005 9:18:36 PM PDT by bayourod
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Immigrants won a handful of protections from the 2005 Nevada Legislature, including measures that preserve their access to college scholarships, aim to improve their health and target human traffickers.
Advocates point to the battle over cutting back the cash-strapped Millennium Scholarship program as the most visible win for immigrants.
Republicans in the Senate had backed a plan that would have prohibited students without Social Security numbers from receiving the $10,000 college tuition awards. Late-night, hot-tempered negotiations blew up when Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, asked Democrats if they wanted the money to go to "illegal aliens."
Although the issue - along with new grade point average requirements and semester credit limits - forced lawmakers into a special session, the compromise deal removed the Social Security provision and was approved unanimously in the Senate and by a large majority in the Assembly.
"These are children who've gone through the public school system and their parents are paying taxes," said Jan Gilbert of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. "We believe they deserve (the scholarship) like other students."
A bill that tries to reduce harassment and discrimination in schools ranks high on American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist Laura Mijanovich's list of victories for immigrants. Mijanovich said immigrant children, particularly Muslim girls who wear headscarves, are often bullied, and school employees don't always deal with the complaints.
AB202 requires schools to have a uniform system of reporting harassment or bullying, and mandates staff training.
"They need to understand there's a lot of bias and stereotypes that need to be broken, and I believe this bill will help them deal with it in a more positive way," she said.
Attorney General Brian Sandoval introduced two bills aimed at protecting recent arrivals to the state, including SB456, which cracks down on human trafficking, slavery and forced labor.
Migrant workers in the construction and agricultural industries, and young men and women caught in the sex trade are the most common victims in Nevada, Chief Deputy Attorney General Gerald Gardner said.
The bill rewrites a Nevada law on involuntary servitude to include enslaving someone by confiscating their passport or threatening them with deportation.
"It gives us a far stronger tool to prosecute those trafficking in human slavery by allowing us to get them for physical and nonphysical threats," Gardner said. "It also helps us target the middle men, those who do the recruiting and harboring of trafficking victims."
Sandoval's other effort, which would have regulated businesses that advertise translation services but often dispense specious legal advice on naturalization, died in an Assembly committee.
AB490 ran into opposition from legal experts who argued the businesses were illegally practicing law and should be shut down, not regulated.
Assemblyman Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas was more successful with his proposal to bar notaries public from advertising with the Spanish translation "notario publico" - a common term for "lawyer" in some countries.
Lawmakers also created and funded an Office of Minority Health to coordinate programs to try to improve minorities' access to affordable health care.
Advocates were less successful in pushing a bill that would have required construction companies that have contracts with the state to recruit more minorities and women. Faced with industry opposition, the bill was rewritten as a resolution encouraging women and minorities to take advantage of opportunities in the field.
Agreed. Legal residents or citizens.
"...illegals pay taxes too..."
We'd all like to think so, but I've searched the state of Colorado and haven't found one yet. I have found lots of illegal roofers, fruit pickers, utility employees and Aspen construction workers who drive $40,000 Dodge diesel trucks and own $300,000 homes, though. It's easier to buy those things when you don't have to pay taxes.
Except if they get paid cash under the table. Then no taxes are taken out. Do you think the contractors who hire all of those day laborers are taking the required taxes out of the wages that they're paying them? Only a fool would believe that.
Employers who fail to withhold IRS taxes go to prison regularly.
This has happened perhaps a few times in the last 10 years. And you call that regularly?
Las Vegas needs Immigrants. They are the ones shoving those 900 number cards in your face every 5 feet. I even ran into a family doing it. They slap the cards first (whatever that means) then shove it in your face.
So? Since the new ones will also be legal, and you don't have anything against legal immigrants, where's the problem.
The "legal vs illegal" argument will never prevail with intelligent people. For example, in academic competitive debate, opposition to something on the basis that it is illegal is not allowed for the reason that laws can always be changed.
Well, for me, that dog won't hunt. We need a sane legal immigration policy. Plain and simple. Anyone coming in outside of that norm is violating the law and should be treated as such, turned back, to come back through in the proscribed process.
...the logical conclusion of what you have stated is that there is no need for laws at all...that intelligent people can somehow just "all get along".
Well, to quote Thomas Paine who referred his remarks to the the foolishness of allowing no one to own guns...I will use the same words applied to this arguement. "Because some will not, we dare not."
I've made my points and am hapy to let others judge for themselves between us.
Yeah, right, let's give another amnesty to the illegal aliens. That type of "punishment" will certainly prevent more of them from coming here in the future. Sheesh.
It is good that Nevada is kind to those who decamp from California. California is rather over crowded these days. More need to cross the river, and into the desert now viewed as a promised land - and beyond - and beyond some more.
So paying taxes trumps being a criminal if one is an illegal alien?
The mindset of the leftist politician these days....
That's an insignificant part of the economy.
Businesses need steady, dependable employees. The IRS has tables for every category of business showing how much the average labor costs are. If the tax return of the business shows a labor cost that is too far below the industry average an audit is triggered.
Failure to pay withholding taxes is routinely prosecuted and employers are commonly given hard time. The IRS doesn't even care about the immigration status of the employees.
You are probably thinking of prosecutions of employers for hiring illegals, not IRS prosecutions for failure to pay withholding taxes, filing false tax returns, tax evasion, etc.. that don't have anything to do with immigration laws, even if the employees were illegal.
If a person pays the same taxes as you they should get the same benefits as you.
Ah yes, make it a "living, breathing" issue.
I'm always excited to see something new.
Yea, just change the laws so the inmates can run the asylum.
Let's just see how it goes and then take it from there. /sarcasm
Yes, I want to live in a country where legal and illegal are meaningless terms.
Interesting concept.
Break the law and for restitution pay taxes.
Has ALL common sense disappeared?
What does legal and illegal have to do with right and wrong?
Abortion is legal, does that mean you believe it's right?
Do you believe that all laws are "right"? Can't you think of any laws that you think need to be changed? How can you think that any laws need changing as long as you think that everything legal is good.
Oh, and one other thing, as far as benefits go?
Yea, it's my pleasure to support those in need who have jumped to the front of the line as non-citizens.
When it comes to personal benefits, in 49 years those benefits have consisted of:
1)Being honored with the title of taxpayer for 49 years less 14 years.
2) see above.
"Taxes are not voluntary. Illegal immigrants have to pay them just like everyone else.
Employers who fail to withhold IRS taxes go to prison regularly. Employers who deduct less labor costs than standard for their business category get audited."
This may be a dumb question, but that's never stopped me before. Sure, an employer can withhold taxes from a paycheck, but how then does the employer report that money to the IRS when the employee DOES NOT LEGALLY EXIST? And if these people are independent contractors, to what does the IRS match the 1099s? The "taxpayers" in these cases are not filing returns.
I don't buy that they pay taxes. And even if they do, that is no justification for criminality. The ends do not justify the means....only in the minds of 'progressives'.
Should they have to pay out-of-state tuition rates?
Violating an immigration regulation has nothing more to do college tuition rates than violating a traffic offense.
I beg to differ, for if "legal vs illegal" isn't an argument then there is no definition of legal or illegal.
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