April 04, 2006

Senate Passes Bill to Train THP on Immigration Laws

The state Senate passed a bill yesterday (SB 2426 by Norris) that would allow for the training of Tennessee Highway Patrol officers on immigration and customs laws and the enforcement thereof.

It would allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to send instructors to Tennessee to train selected officers. The federal government would pay for the training.

"This is designed to supplement our troopers' skills, not to supplant," Norris said. "It's meant to provide the information they need in the field when they encounter these sorts of situations."

This type of program was implemented by the state of Alabama, and has seen some good results...mostly in the arrests of illegal immigrants that are involved with other types of illegal activity.

Kleinheider likes the bill, and it is a step in the right direction. I'm not sure it will have a huge impact, but something is definitely better than nothing (what's the Federal government been doing?...yeah...nothing).

The bill's House counterpart, HB3229, has been deferred to April, 11 by the State and Local Government Committee.

As a humorous aside, there were several senators who fought against this bill. Included in that group was Senator Haynes (D-Nashville). Senator Haynes forgot one thing though...as Norris pointed out to him, Haynes has filed a bill that does exactly the same thing (SB 2869). Ops.

Comments:

Please Note! Failure to abide by the following may result in your comments being edited or deleted: Remain on topic. Foul language and/or personal attacks are not permitted. Excessive links (more than three per thread) must be approved first. If you do include a link in your comment, make sure it is a short link (go to tinyurl.com if it is too long). Try to keep comments to 125 words or less. Thank you.