INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Senate Democrats, after hearing from Hoosiers about Senate Bill (SB) 76 , warned that House amendments significantly expanded the measure, sending what lawmakers described as an already harmful proposal to the governor’s desk in an even more dangerous form. This bill marks a profound turning point in how our own Indiana government interacts with families, schools and communities, replacing systems built on trust and stability with a sweeping mandate rooted in fear while doing nothing to address the affordability challenges Hoosiers are struggling with every day.
“This law does not make Indiana safer. It certainly doesn’t make things easier or more affordable for Hoosiers. Instead, it makes Indiana more fearful, more divided and less stable for every Hoosier,” said Senate Democratic Leader Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington). “You cannot build strong communities by making people afraid to show up for school, seek health care or cooperate with law enforcement.”
The bill requires preschool programs, K-12 schools, colleges and universities across Indiana to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, placing educators into federal enforcement roles they were never meant to perform. It opens the door to scenarios already seen where heavily armed, masked federal agents try to forcibly enter schools to remove children with no parental oversight, putting teachers into impossible situations as they work to protect the children in their care.
“Schools should be doors to opportunity, not checkpoints of fear,” Yoder said. “When families believe that simply sending their child to class could put them at risk, they stop showing up. When that happens, learning stops, stability disappears and all Hoosiers pay the price.”
This reflects a growing and very unpopular national political pattern in which states replicate highly visible and extreme enforcement policies that generate headlines but fail to solve the real problems families are facing.
“At a time when Hoosiers are struggling with affordability, rising costs and workforce shortages, this law does nothing to lower a single household bill or make a single family more secure,” Yoder said. “Instead, it imports D.C. political fights into our state and asks Hoosiers to pay the costs and live with the consequences. That is not leadership. That is playing dangerous political games.”
The ripple effects extend into higher education, where educators and businesses alike warn injecting enforcement pressure into campus life risks discouraging students from attending classes, reporting crimes or accessing essential heath care, ultimately accelerating our brain drain problem and undermining the workforce pipeline Indiana depends on for economic growth.
“You cannot build a strong economy while destabilizing the institutions that educate and train the workforce,” Yoder said. “Policies that create fear on campuses do not attract talent. They drive it away.”
Senate Democrats also raised concerns about public health, saying fear of institutional intervention can discourage families from seeking preventive care and early treatment.
“When people are afraid to seek help early, they wait until health problems become emergencies,” Yoder said. “That makes families sicker, health care more expensive for everyone and communities less stable.”
Senate Democrats also warned that SB 76 is the very definition of undermining Hoosier law enforcement by forcing local police officers and sheriffs to take on federal immigration duties they are neither trained nor funded to perform.
Some Hoosier sheriffs have publicly stated that their facilities are overcrowded and lack the space to detain additional individuals who have not committed violent crimes. This law diverts already understaffed departments away from protecting neighborhoods and solving serious crimes and instead pushes them into carrying out priorities set in Washington, D.C., not in Indiana communities.
“Forcing counties to take on federal enforcement duties creates dangerous tradeoffs,” Yoder said. “When jail beds are filled by people who are not dangerous, space disappears for actual violent offenders who truly threaten public safety. That puts both law enforcement officers and citizens alike into harm’s way.”
Senate Democrats said the long-term effects of the law will be felt in classrooms, campuses, clinics, and neighborhoods across Indiana as trust between residents, neighbors, law-enforcement, schools, and doctors erodes.
“The very fiber of freedom is on the line,” Yoder said. “Indiana is choosing to govern through fear, harm and division instead of trust and stability with a foundational respect for due process and the rule of law.”
