Hours after the state House passed a resolution praising Arizona for its treatment of illegal aliens, the state Senate crafted a bill Monday night to require sheriffs to check the citizenship of the people they put in jail.

Senator Diane Black called the original bill “287 Lite.” 287G is the federal program used by the Davidson County sheriff’s department to check citizenship of anyone who is arrested. That program requires a formal agreement between local and federal governments. Senator Black’s proposal does not.

Black wants to create a statewide program in which jailers would be trained by a state agency to use the same procedures.

“It gives us consistency across the state of the manner in which this is going to be applied. And that has been the concern from the sheriffs’ organization, is that there would be consistency.”

Senator Dolores Gresham sponsored the original bill to check citizenship of everyone arrested in the state.

“An immigration lawyer asked me, over the phone, he says, Dolores, I cannot believe that you brought this bill. Here you are, a Mexican American and a Catholic, and I cannot believe that you brought this bill. Whoops. He forgot I was also an elected Tennessee senator.”

State enforcement of immigration law has become a rallying point for Republicans in the legislature this year. The Senate put off a final vote until Thursday.

Senator Diane Black is running for Congress this year. More on the political motivations of the bill are at wpln.org. Black’s proposal drastically changes the bill already passed by the House to check the immigration status of everyone arrested in the state. So the state House would have to take another vote before sending the legialstion to Governor Bredesen for his signature.

Web Extra

The bill is HB 0670 Dennis/SB 1141 Gresham. The bill passed in the House in May 2009, by 67-24. This year it idled in the Senate until May 13, when Gresham brought it to the Senate floor. Gresham says the bill is aimed at illegal aliens, in fact, illegal aliens involved in criminal activities – not legal immigrants.

“I’m proud to be an American of Mexican descent. I am the granddaughter of immigrants who fled the violence of the revolution in Mexico, just after the turn of the 20th Century. My father was a member of the greatest generation. He served in the United States Army in World War Two. My parents had seven children, and five of them wore the uniform of the U.S. armed forces. Been there, done that.”

Under the rewritten bill, the federal agency that will have to check the citizenship is the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called ICE. ICE also has the Criminal Enforcement Alien Program, which Shelby County follows.

In a run of non-support, senators on May 13 exempted the following counties from the bill: Hamilton, Knox, Marion, Shelby, Dickson, Giles, Hickman, Humphreys, Lawrence, Lewis, Montgomery, Cheatham, Houston, Carroll, Gibson, Madison, Robertson, Sumner, and Roane.

But Black’s “consistency” amendment strips all the exemptions out – all counties would have to participate in a citizenship checking program of some sort, except those of Sen. Doug Overbey, a Republican from Maryville, and Sen. Tim Barnes, a Democrat, who were allowed to exempt their counties.

The bill became a political issue in a U.S. Congressional race in Middle Tennessee. Senator Jim Tracy and Senator Diane Black, both Republicans, are running for the GOP nomination for the Sixth Congressional District, being given up by Democratic U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon.

On May 13, Black passed amendments to take her district, Robertson and Sumner counties, out of the effect of the bill. Tracy immediately began to issue the same press release, day after day, accusing Black of “coddling illegal immigrants.”

To the contrary, Black says, her counties already do more to track down illegal immigrants than is called for by the bill. Her amendment Monday night put her counties back in the program.