A key state senator and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita are facing off again over what steps the state should take in cracking down on illegal immigration.
At issue is Senate Bill 76 — authored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, after she blocked a bill with some similar provisions during the last legislative session. That move resulted in Rokita claiming she did so because she has an “illegal alien” in her family.
Her current proposal includes language allowing state agencies and Rokita’s office to investigate the “employment of an unauthorized alien” and report possible violations to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Indiana Department of Labor.
Rokita, however, is backing a differing proposal in Senate Bill 122, which would give the attorney general’s office authority to seek court orders suspending an “employer’s operating authorizations” over such suspected violations.
Rokita, a Republican, blasted Brown on social media over her bill, saying she had “introduced a watered-down, bizarro world version … that takes all the enforcement teeth out of the bill. That makes her bill meaningless.”
Brown countered that she has worked with entities from the Trump administration to county sheriffs in order to find effective ways to help enforce federal immigration laws.
“The biggest thing is making sure that we didn’t grow government and that the power isn’t centered in one agency or individual,” Brown told reporters.
Hiring practices in question
Erin Tuttle, the attorney general office’s legislative director, criticized Brown’s bill during a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday as an “inadequate response” to prevent businesses from hiring people who are in the country illegally.
“The Supreme Court has confirmed that states may sanction the license of employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers,” Tuttle said. “If Indiana refuses to adopt the one enforcement mechanism available under federal law, it cannot credibly claim to be a leader in combating illegal immigration.”
Immigrant advocates, however, raised concerns about the impact of the legislation.
Carolina Castoreno, co-founder of the Indianapolis-based Alliance for Latino Migrant Advocacy, told committee members that the proposal encourages racial profiling by businesses.
“It pushes them toward discriminatory hiring practices, meaning someone who fits a certain look or has a certain name or has an accent may be discriminated against, just out of precaution,” Castoreno said. “We know who is harmed, people with brown skin, people with accents, people with names that sound unfamiliar to an HR manager.”
Committee members voted 6-2 along party lines to advance the bill to the full Senate, which could take up the proposal in early January.
Rokita-Brown conflict continues
The dispute between Rokita and Brown over the legislation grows out of their conflict over an immigration-enforcement bill from the legislative session earlier this year.
House members approved House Bill 1531 in February, but Brown did not hold a Senate committee hearing on the bill and it died when the legislative session ended in April.
Rokita then claimed Brown had blocked the legislation because she had a “family member who’s an illegal alien.”
Brown called that claim “blatantly false.” She also filed an attorney misconduct grievance over Rokita’s comments with the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission that she said Tuesday was still pending.
Rokita and U.S. Sen. Jim Banks have repeatedly criticized Brown on social media over last session’s bill.
They also are backing Darren Vogt, who works on Banks’ Senate staff and is a Northwest Allen County Schools board member, in a Republican primary challenge to Brown’s 2026 reelection bid.
Following the committee vote, Rokita posted to X that the bill “would actively shield sanctuary jurisdictions and directly undermines our ongoing lawsuits to end sanctuary policies in Monroe and St. Joseph counties. We need to stop illegal immigration—not protect the counties and officials who defy state law and put Hoosier families last.”
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