Republican state Sen. Jonathan Lindsey wants to create a DEPORT task force to help carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, but Senate leadership isn’t having it.
“My legislation would create the Developing Effective Policies on Orderly Removal and Transportation Task Force,” Lindsey, R-Coldwater, said in a statement. “This task force would work rapidly to develop policies promoting President Trump’s efforts to remove dangerous criminals from Michigan communities.”
The intent behind Senate Bill 40 is to identify key federal, state, and local policies on immigration to propose cooperative solutions to help facilitate the federal deportation efforts.
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Unfortunately, Democrats who control the upper chamber this week blocked Lindsey from introducing the legislation.
“The Democrat majority only scheduled two days of work this week, and both days refused to allow new legislation to be read in and formally introduced in the chamber,” Lindsey said. “I turned this bill in days ago, and there has been no progress. This is an outright failure to fulfill their constitutional duty and most basic job as lawmakers. I hope next week we are able to resume business and will be allowed by Senate leadership to do the job we were elected to do.”
SB 40 would task Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp., with selecting 15 individuals with varying backgrounds to serve on the task force, Lindsay said in on the Senate floor Thursday.
The task force “would be a group of law enforcement, prosecutors, state and local officials, and even experts on combatting drug and human trafficking who would identify critical areas of overlap between federal deportation efforts and state and local policies, and make recommendations to align them,” he said “The DEPORT task force would be a critical tool to help ensure Michigan is doing our part to make our communities safer.
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The yet to be introduced bill is among others presented by Republicans in the upper chamber since President Donald Trump took office last week and immediately launched the largest deportation effort in U.S. history.
“All illegal entry will immediately be halted. And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said in his inauguration speech. “We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
Also Thursday, Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, unveiled four bills to assist with federal deportation efforts, two previously introduced during the 2023-24 legislative session, and two others modeled after Texas law.
“Immigration helped build Michigan and the United States — but it should be accomplished legally with processes that affirm the rule of law,” Albert said in a statement. “All should be welcome to come to the U.S. if they use lawfully available immigration pathways. Unfortunately, much of the immigration in recent years has been illegal, and there is a right and duty to secure our nation’s borders to improve public safety.”
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Albert’s Senate bills 42 and 43 from last session would require local law enforcement to determine the immigration status of criminal offenders after lawful arrests, and mandate cooperation between jails and federal immigration authorities.
The legislation would further create an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Support Fund, with grants for local law enforcement to better cooperate with ICE.
Senate bills 44 and 45, modeled after Texas, would align state and federals by making it a state crime for illegal immigrants to enter Michigan unlawfully, while allowing those who violate the law to avoid state prosecution if they agree to return to their home country through a legal port of entry.
The exemption for returning home, however, would not apply to repeat offenders of those charged with separate crimes.
Like Lindsey’s legislation, Albert’s bills were blocked by Senate Democrats from being introduced this week.
“The border has been broken for so long, it’s unrealistic to expect the federal government to fix this crisis alone,” Albert said. “Every state feels the strain on public resources, and it also raises public safety concerns. The state of Michigan should assist in efforts to keep our borders secure as part of the overall effort to combat the flow of drugs, human trafficking and other crimes.”
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, remain focused on federal issues, and bills bungled by House Democrats during last year’s chaotic lame duck session. Last week, Senate Democrats threatened to sue House Speaker Hall after he initiated a legal review into nine bills approved by the Senate that failed to reach Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
All nine bills initially passed the House, and were sent to the Senate, where they gained approval during an overnight session that stretched from Dec. 19 to Dec. 20. Then House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, adjourned the House on the morning of Dec. 19 after all Republicans and Rep. Karen Whitsett, D-Detroit, refused to vote on a slate of Democratic bills they claimed would hurt Michiganders.
Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, introduced Senate Resolution 3 last Wednesday to compel Hall to present the nine bills to Whitmer, and threatened litigation if he doesn’t comply, WZZM reports.
“Despite its constitutional duty, the House of Representatives has failed to present those bills to the Governor and has advised, through the Speaker of the House, that it will continue holding the bills,” Brinks’ SR 3 reads. “The Constitution does not permit the House’s unilateral decision to delay presenting those bills to the Governor.”
Hall slammed Brinks for “wasting taxpayer dollars on political lawsuits,” and vowed to procced with the legal review despite the threat.
“There’s just a lot of legal and constitutional questions,” he said, “and the more we look into it, the more we find, so we’re going to do a thorough legal review. But, the Senate has no role in telling the House what to do.”
Republicans last session introduced legislation to address illegal immigration, including a proposed ban on sanctuary jurisdictions, but those bills were blocked by a Democratic government trifecta that crumbled in November.
Republicans now hold a 58-52 majority in the lower chamber, while it’s a 19-18 Democratic majority in the Senate.